John Cena and Nikki Bella have ended their engagement.
The professional wrestling couple were just weeks away from tying the knot on their May 5 wedding date after getting engaged during Wrestlemania 33 in April last year, but they have now revealed they are going their separate ways.
The pair - who had been together for six years - confirmed the news in a statement which was tweeted out by 34-year-old Nikki, and first reported by Us Weekly magazine.
It read: “While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another. We ask that you respect our privacy during this time in our lives.”
Over the weekend, 40-year-old John took to Instagram to post a quote from Walt Whitman which read: “We were together. I forget the rest.”
A post shared by John Cena (@johncena) on Apr 15, 2018 at 4:33am PDT
The shocking split comes after ‘Blockers’ star John admitted last month that their relationship takes a lot of work.
He said: “Relationships are hard. Don’t ever think that love is easy. Love is beautiful, but we’ve had to come to the realisation after being together for five years that love is not easy.
“We work every day on us. We have our problems just like everybody else. Some of our problems are very public, some of them aren’t. But we work every day on us. Anytime I get upset, I always just realise that I can’t live without her and I love her and that’s why I cave in on a lot of stuff.
“It takes being able to mesh two lives. I would never ever want Nicole to be in a position where she says, ‘I’m holding you back from doing this because I feel it’s wrong for us.’ And I would never say that to her. That’s why she’s super busy and sometimes we don’t see each other for months at a time, but when we do see each other, it’s our time together. I think, for now at least, that is certainly what’s making this work.”
Previously, John had also said he already felt as though he had wed the ‘Total Bellas’ reality star, as it felt “nice” to hear fans already referring to her as his wife.
He said: “People come up to me and say, ‘I love watching your wife on television.’ And I love that, so that happens to me 10 times before it would be a, ‘Yo man I love your work.’ It’s always, ‘I love watching your wife on television.’
“I’m already ready to go there and it sounds nice hearing it. I know that we will have a wonderful future together because I love the way that sounds.”