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WWE star John Cena and fiancée, Nikki Bella, have ended their six year relationship, three weeks before they were set to tie the knot.
The split comes a year after Cena, 40, sensationally proposed to Nikki, 34 during the live broadcast of Wrestlemania 33.
The celebrity couple broke the news in a statement to US Weekly, saying: “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.”
Later on Instagram, Cena posted a Walt Whitman quote which read: “We were together. I forget the rest.”
Last month, Cena told Us Weekly that “relationships are hard”.
He continued: “Relationships are hard. Don’t ever think that love is easy. Love is beautiful, but we’ve had to come to the realization after being together for five years that love is not easy,” Cena said. “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 realize that I can’t live without her and I love her and that’s why I cave in on a lot of stuff.”
According to Cena, “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.”