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23 Feb 2026 7:26
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  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Nikki Bella isn’t sure if she’ll take Artem Chigvintsev’s surname when they marry

    The 36-year-old retired professional wrestler is set to tie the knot with her fiancé Artem - with whom she is expecting her first child - but has explained she hasn’t yet decided whether she wants to be known as Nikki Chigvinstev


    Speaking on the ‘Watch With Us’ podcast, Nikki’s twin sister Brie said: “We’re still trying to work on her being able to say the last name properly.”

    And Nikki then joked: “I can’t even say my soon-to-be last name!”

    Nikki elaborated on her dilemma as she said she would love for Artem to take her last name, but says he might not be so keen on the idea as he’s “very traditional”.

    She said: “I always tell him, like, ‘Can you just be Bella? It’s easier!’ I feel like in this day and age, like, come on. The future is female. I kind of like just mine, but we’ll see. He’s very traditional, which I love.”

    The couple are yet to plan much of their wedding, as Nikki found out she was pregnant just three days after returning from their trip to France in November, during which Artem proposed.

    Speaking about the pregnancy news, Nikki explained: “I was so rocked, I couldn’t even think about anything for a week. I didn’t want to tell anyone because I was, like, maybe this test is wrong. I want to try again. Now, all we’ve ever said about wedding planning is let’s wait till after the baby. We didn’t even get to enjoy that honeymoon time of being engaged. The engagement was already fast for me. I was going up and down.”

    Nikki also said she spent the early days of her romance with Artem unsure of what she wanted, as she never goes into a romance with a plan.

    She said: “I’m a normal girl that goes, like, ‘I love love.’ I love it and I don’t have rules on it. Maybe I need it. I don’t know, but I’m not the one who’s like, ‘OK wait to move in after a year and then wait to get engaged after two.’ I don’t have any of that in my life. I just go with the flow of love. But then I get really scared and I throw up these high guards like a castle … Especially when it’s so permanent. That scares me.”

    © 2026 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

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