WWE superstar John Cena and former Divas champ Nikki Bella are calling it quits — just one year after he proposed to her at WrestleMania.
“While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another,” the wrestling couple told Us Weekly in a statement on Sunday.
“We ask that you respect our privacy during this time in our lives,” they said.
Cena, 40, and Bella, 34, had been dating since 2012 and were very open about their relationship.
“Don’t ever think that love is easy,” Cena told Us Weekly last month. “Love is beautiful, but we’ve had to come to the realization after being together for five years that love is not easy.
“We work every day on us,” Cena added. “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 realize that I can’t live without her and I love her and that’s why I cave in on a lot of stuff.”
Cena had popped the question to Bella last year at WrestleMania 33 — in the middle of the ring — following a mixed tag team match they had against WWE superstars The Miz and Maryse.
The couple was last spotted together in New Orleans on April 8 during WrestleMania 34.
“We were together. I forget the rest,” Cena wrote Sunday on Instagram.
A post from Saturday featured a picture of a heart made out of shattered glass.
On Sunday night, Cena posted a meme saying “Worst Day Ever!” It came less than an hour after Us Weekly popped the statement about his split from Bella.
“Relationships are hard,” Cena said while speaking to the magazine last month.
“It takes being able to mesh two lives,” he added. “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.”