It’s the little things! Pregnant Nikki Bella is “so grateful” that her fiancé, Artem Chigvintsev, knows his way around the kitchen.
The former WWE star, 36, revealed to Us Weekly via the “Watch With Us” podcast that her husband-to-be, 37, “cooks a lot,” which is something she is very thankful for given that she and twin sister Brie Bella are both expecting and quarantining next door to each other amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“Sometimes I try not to, like, get upset at him and just embrace it because he’ll make all this amazing bread,” Nikki explained.
According to Brie, Chigvintsev recently whipped up a homemade banana bread that was particularly tasty.
“Banana bread with chocolate chips in it,” Nikki clarified. “It’s like, yeah. I’m so grateful for it, but then I eat all of it and then I’m so upset because I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!’”
As it turns out, the Dancing With the Stars pro has a talent for cooking savory dishes as well. The night before baking the banana bread, Chigvintsev prepared a delectable “homemade eggplant Parmesan,” according to Brie.
“[It had] three cheeses in it. It was amazing,” Nikki recalled. “I mean he’s an incredible cook.”
Brie agreed that Chigvintsev is “incredible” in the kitchen but pointed out that his cooking expertise is actually preventing the sisters from honing their own skills. “Every day her and I are like, ‘Today we’re going to start.’ We’re going to and then Artem makes us … homemade bread was three days ago.”
Though Nikki obviously appreciates her fiancé’s desire to cook, she’s actually pleased the Russian dancer no longer has a key ingredient. “I’m happy that right now we ran out of yeast, so he can’t cook anything fresh,” she explained.
Still, the Dancing With the Stars alum insists her partner has been “great” in ways that stretch beyond the kitchen. “I get moments where I want a back rub or a foot rub and I ask a lot and he does it, so that’s really good,” she told Us. [I’ll say,] ‘Please, can I just have a back massage? I’m carrying your kid.’”
While Nikki and Chigvintsev are expecting their first child, Brie is pregnant with her second little one with husband Daniel Bryan. The Total Bellas stars announced in January that they are both expecting and due less than two weeks apart, and now they’re having similar cravings as well.
“Our first trimester all we wanted were açaí bowls and apples,” Brie told Us.
For her part, Nikki noted that while fruit was a big hit for her and Brie early on, their collective cravings have since shifted a bit. “I’ve never had as much bread before and during the past however many months I am, it’s like every day I have to have some sort of toast or something,” she admitted. “Yesterday we were craving cinnamon rolls.”
Total Bellas season 5 premieres on E! on Thursday, April 2, at 9 P.M. ET.
With reporting by Emily Longeretta
