John Cena & Nikki Bella’s Dating Timeline Will Help You Make Sense Of Their Sudden Split

It may have been an entirely separate relationship, but by Cena's own admission, his first marriage to his high-school sweetheart Elizabeth Huberdeau has had a lot of bearing on his thoughts on marriage. (So stay tuned for that.) TMZ reported that the relationship ended because of tensions that built up over the couple's remodeling process, and that Huberdeau accused her wrestling beau of infidelity, a claim he fought, as it reportedly would have nullified their prenuptial agreement.

According to Life & Style, they ultimately settled their disagreements out of court, but the terms remain confidential.

By 2012, Pop Sugar reported that the pair had already known each other as friends for many years, after meeting through WWE. But right after Cena's divorce, he finally got up the nerve to ask Bella to dinner, and the two began dating soon after.

The new couple took the next step into their relationship when Cena introduced Bella to his family during the mid-season finale of Total Divas. The 34-year-old more than held her own with the rowdy Cena family, and it apparently made the wrestler comfortable enough to advance the relationship.

Just a year after they started dating, the WWE couple was set to move in together. But even though the relationship was moving quickly, Cena still felt burned by his previous relationship, and was maintaining very strong boundaries. As he revealed in an episode of Total Divas that was quoted by Maxim, the 40-year-old made his girlfriend sign a contract just to move in. And not a short one, either. "I had to have [Nikki] sign an agreement to live in the house," he told the outlet. "And that's-it wasn't a one-page, it's a 75-page agreement."

He revealed that the decision was based not on Bella's behavior, but on how things ended with his previous wife, and wanting to protect the family members he supports.

He'd already expressed similar opinions on Total Divas, but in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Cena took an even harder line on marriage, saying he'd never be comfortable walking down the aisle again, let alone in having kids. He said,

"Look, I know I cannot handle raising a child ... Just because everyone else is happy with children doesn't mean that's how I have to live. I've been upfront about this. I just have things I need to get done. It's not negotiable. We've been to therapy over it. I don't think it will ever be over with. I'm stubborn as f*ck and extremely selfish as well. I don't want kids, I don't want marriage. That's me just saying, 'Hey, this is my life and this is how I'm going to live.'"

In Season 5, Episode 2 of Total Divas, however, Cena suddenly reversed himself. He'd clearly been giving Bella's wants and needs a lot of thought, and at the couple's three-year anniversary dinner, he revealed that he'd come around on the idea of marriage and would "love" to marry his longtime girlfriend.

However, during the broadcast of Wrestlemania 33 on April 2, 2017, Cena did what he said he'd never do, and got down on one knee to pop the question. Obviously, the answer was a resounding "yes."

In October, Cena and Bella shared with People that they'd had to push back the date of their wedding, and in November, seven months after the public proposal, the couple revealed to Us Weekly that they were just beginning to wedding plan. They attributed both decisions to their busy schedules, and planning moved forward.

Previews for the upcoming season of Total Divas showed Bella tearfully asking if the wedding was off, and it left fans with questions as well. And in a February 2018 appearance on TODAY, Cena acknowledged that the couple was having issues, but said things were still on track, telling Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford:

"I think in relationships, you have highs and lows, and that was an extreme low. You have two choices. You either jump ship and start a new relationship, or move forward and try to work through it. We're gonna move forward and try to work through it... I believe we both have some work to do, and we're genuinely trying our best to work through it, so I'm very happy to say that it's in a situation that we're working through. We haven't yet jumped ship."

It's that "yet" word that would come back to haunt them.

Less than three weeks out from their planned wedding, the former couple announced their separation via short but heartfelt social media posts. Bella's asked for understanding and privacy in her Instagram post, and Cena's April 16 tweet didn't even directly reference the breakup, but instead shared a thought with his 11.3 million followers about the ways that hardships build perseverance.

For as devastating as it is that this couple isn't going to work out, it's better that they made this discovery before they got married rather than after. And since they so far seem to be treating each other with respect and compassion, fans should take a page out of the same book and grant them the privacy and understanding they've asked for.