Surprise: Nikki and Brie Bella are (both!) pregnant!
In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, the Total Bella stars, both 36, reveal they’re both expecting — and they’re due only a week and a half apart.
“Wait, twins being pregnant at the same time?” Brie says. “People are going to think that’s a joke. We both are shocked. People are going to think we planned it, but you can’t really plan pregnancy!”
“[It was] a total surprise,” Nikki adds. “It took even me a good week to come to terms with like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m pregnant.’ I’m not ready for it.”
Brie, who shares 2-year-old daughter Birdie with husband and pro wrestler Daniel Bryan, was “shocked” to learn she’d conceived shortly after she decided she was “meant to have one child.”
“My husband and I were trying for seven or eight months, but then I felt in my heart it was a sign from God, like, ‘You guys are good with one,’ so we stopped trying,” says Brie. “When we were in France meeting Artem’s family, I felt a little off. I was irritated and uncomfortable in my body. When we got home, I took a test two days before Thanksgiving, and when I saw the positive sign, I was like, ‘Oh, s—!’ “
For Nikki, she says she and her new fiancé, Dancing with the Stars pro Artem Chigvintsev, weren’t trying, but she had a “feeling.”
“I was in yoga, and I kept getting this feeling that you need to take a pregnancy test, but I wasn’t even late yet,” says Nikki, who got engaged during a romantic trip to France in November. “And so I’m like, ‘Why do I keep having this feeling? Am I getting twin vibes from her? Because she just told me she’s pregnant?’ “
“I didn’t tell Artem at this point,” Nikki adds. “I just want to do this by myself. When I came back in, and it said pregnant, I had to sit down for a second.”
Because they share everything, from birthdays to WWE titles, the Bellas say they’re experiencing the same symptoms too.
“We have definitely felt better in our lives,” says Brie. “It’s actually crazy because we both have the same symptoms. So we’ve been super nauseous.”
“I feel like I literally have a hangover every day and it’s crazy because I’m not going out and partying,” adds Nikki. “I’m not hitting up my usual happy hours. There’s no wine in my life. It’s like having a hangover. I think what’s been the hardest part on me is feeling this hangover every day.”
She continues “My eating habits have changed. I thought that, ‘Okay, I’m gonna stay healthy. I’m going to be good.’ But when it kicks in, this feeling, you only want french fries and ketchup. Vegetables sound disgusting. Anything healthy, honestly, sounds disgusting.”
But despite the “hangovers,” both Brie and Nikki are grateful for how things turned out.
“Even though I feel really sick, like, can’t believe I’m going to be a mom soon,” says Nikki. “I’m going to have this person to take care of for the rest of their life and help them do the right things and just show them the way of the world. That’s amazing!”
“It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life,” adds Nikki, who was previously engaged to wrestler-actor John Cena (they called it quits in July 2018).
“So when I thought it was going to be taken, for me, it was really difficult. I was just like, gosh, I can’t imagine life without being a mom and experiencing the miracle of life and raising a child. I’m just so family-oriented that I couldn’t imagine not having that family life.”