Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace (born November 21, 1983), also known by the stage names Nikki Bella and Nikki Garcia, is an American professional wrestler and television personality. She is signed to WWE.
In 2007, Garcia signed with WWE and was assigned to the developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling alongside her twin sister Brianna, who went by Brie, forming the duo The Bella Twins. She made her debut for the SmackDown brand in 2008. She is a two-time WWE Divas Champion with her second reign of 301 days being the longest reign for the now defunct title. She and Brie were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 as The Bella Twins. Also during her time in WWE, she starred in the reality TV series, Total Divas, and she and Brie got their own spin-off, Total Bellas. In her last few years in WWE, she only made sporadic appearances, but acted as an ambassador for the company. After her contract with WWE expired in 2023, Nikki and Brie retired the "Bella" surname and returned to their legal maiden name of "Garcia" professionally, reintroducing themselves as The Garcia Twins. Nikki reverted to the Bella name in 2025 upon returning to WWE at that year's Royal Rumble event.
Garcia ranked No. 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Female 50 in November 2015, and was named Diva of the Year by Rolling Stone in December 2015. She also won the award for Choice Female Athlete alongside her sister at the Teen Choice Awards in 2016.
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Early life
Born sixteen minutes before her twin sister, Brianna, to parents Jon Garcia and Kathy Colace, Garcia-Colace was born in San Diego, California, and raised on a farm in Phoenix, Arizona. She is also a native of Scottsdale, Arizona. She is of Italian and Mexican descent. Keen soccer enthusiasts, she along with her twin sister played for the Scottsdale club in elementary school. She graduated from Chaparral High School in 2002. She then returned to San Diego for college where she played soccer for Grossmont College, but relocated to Los Angeles a year later, where she worked as a waitress at the Mondrian Hotel while trying to find an agent.
She made her first national TV appearance on the Fox reality show Meet My Folks. Following this appearance, the Garcia twins were hired to be the World Cup Twins for Budweiser and were photographed holding the World Cup trophy. They were contestants in the 2006 "International Body Doubles twins search" and later participated in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, but they did not make the cut.
Professional wrestling career
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE (2007–2012)
Nicole was signed to a developmental contract with her sister by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in June 2007 and was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), WWE's then-developmental territory, in Tampa, Florida. At a FCW house show on September 15, 2007, Nicole and her twin Brie, called The Bella Twins, made their in-ring debut by defeating Nattie Neidhart and Krissy Vaine with Victoria Crawford as the special guest referee. She quickly started a scripted rivalry with Neidhart and Crawford, competing in a series of matches against them throughout October 2007. As a part of their on-screen personas, she and Brie would switch places behind the referee's back if one of them was hurt. She also occasionally competed in mixed tag team matches, teaming with male wrestlers including Kofi Kingston and Robert Anthony. She also made some non-wrestling appearances on Heath Miller's Happy Hour promo segment.
Starting in December 2007, she managed Derrick Linkin, however, the storyline was cut short when Linkin was released in January 2008. She and Brie then resumed their feud with Neidhart and Crawford, wrestling them throughout much of 2008. After Neidhart was called up to the WWE roster in April 2008, Milena Roucka took her place in the feud. Nikki also competed in bikini contests, and wrestled against other competitors including Katie Lea Burchill and Daisy. Nikki's last FCW appearance was on September 2, when she competed in a Divas battle royal won by Miss Angela.
On the August 29, 2008, episode of SmackDown, Brianna debuted as Brie Bella, defeating Victoria. She quickly began a scripted rivalry with Victoria and Victoria's accomplice, Natalya, and had a series of matches against them. In each match, Brie would roll out of the ring and go underneath it, emerging and appearing revived, and then win the match. On the October 31 episode of SmackDown, when Brie went under the ring, Victoria grabbed her legs, but a second pair of legs kicked her off, implying that a second person was under the ring. The following week on SmackDown, Brie defeated Victoria and then ran under the ring to escape Natalya and Victoria, but Victoria and Natalya both reached for Brie under the ring, resulting in both Nicole and Brie being pulled out. The twins then attacked them and celebrated afterward. Nicole was then introduced as Nikki Bella, and the twins had their first official match as a team on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, defeating Victoria and Natalya. They continued competing in tag team matches over the following months.
Independent circuit (2012–2013)
On May 1, 2012, the twins appeared at their first independent wrestling show in Newburgh, New York for the promotion Northeast Wrestling. They later appeared for CTWE Pro Wrestling at the Season Beatings pay-per-view on December 15, each accompanying a different wrestler to the ring.
Return to WWE (2013–2023)
On the March 11, 2013, episode of Raw, The Bella Twins returned to WWE in a backstage segment with Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow). On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, they attacked The Funkadactyls (Cameron and Naomi), and the following week interfered in matches between Team Rhodes Scholars and Brodus Clay and Tensai, but were attacked by The Funkadactyls. The twins made their in–ring return facing and defeating The Funkadactyls on the March 27 episode of Main Event after interference from Cody Rhodes, and also defeated them on Raw five days later. The Bella Twins were scheduled to participate in an eight–person tag team match with Team Rhodes Scholars against Tons of Funk (Clay and Tensai) and The Funkadactyls at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, but the match was canceled due to time restraints, and instead took place the following night on Raw, where The Bella Twins and Team Rhodes Scholars were defeated. The twins continued their feud with The Funkadactyls, defeating them in standard tag team, and six-Diva tag team matches. In June, Nikki suffered a fractured tibia.Upon the debut of the Total Divas reality television program in July, The Bellas returned and started a feud with their co-star on the show, Natalya. Brie and Natalya went on to trade victories in singles competition on Raw and at SummerSlam on August 18. The cast of Total Divas then transitioned into a scripted feud with Divas Champion AJ Lee, who mocked the show and cast, turning The Bellas faces in the process. Nikki returned to in-ring action on the October 25 episode of SmackDown, losing to Lee. At Survivor Series on November 24, the twins were part of the victorious Team Total Divas. On the December 9 episode of Raw, the twins were awarded Slammy Awards for Diva of the Year.
On April 6, 2014, Nikki competed at WrestleMania XXX in the 14-Diva "Vickie Guerrero Invitational match" for the Divas Championship, which was won by the defending champion AJ Lee. The same month, Brie became involved in her real-life husband Daniel Bryan's ongoing storyline with Stephanie McMahon and Kane, where as part of the storyline, McMahon threatened to fire Brie if, an injured, Bryan did not relinquish the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback on June 1, which forced Brie to "quit" WWE before slapping McMahon in the face. After Brie quit, McMahon put Nikki in several handicap matches as punishment. After being absent for a month, Brie returned to WWE television, appearing in the crowd on July 21; following a confrontation, McMahon slapped Brie and was subsequently arrested. In order to have Brie drop the "charges", Brie was rehired and received a match against McMahon at SummerSlam.
At the pay-per-view on August 17, Nikki turned heel by attacking Brie, which allowed McMahon to win the match. The next several weeks saw the twins fight in several backstage and in-ring segments, including a cameo appearance from Jerry Springer on Raw on September 8. As part of the storyline, McMahon declared Nikki the face of the Divas division and granted her a match at Night of Champions for the Divas Championship on September 21, which she failed to win. Nikki then obtained permission to begin forcing Brie to compete in handicap matches, similar to her punishment at the hands of McMahon, although Brie was able to win them. This led to a match between the twins at Hell in a Cell on October 26, where the loser was forced to become the winner's personal assistant for 30 days, in which Nikki defeated Brie. Five days later on SmackDown, Nikki won a Halloween costume battle royal to become the number one contender for the Divas Championship.
Second return to WWE (2025–present)
On February 1, 2025, at Royal Rumble, Nikki Bella made a surprise return to WWE as the final entrant in the 2025 Women's Royal Rumble match. She eliminated Bayley before being eliminated by Nia Jax. Bella made her return to Raw on June 9 as a face, in her home state of Arizona and promoting Evolution 2, where she was interrupted and attacked by one-half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Liv Morgan. This was reportedly going to set up a match for Evolution, but the plans were scrapped after Morgan suffered a legitimate shoulder injury the following week.
On the July 7 episode of Raw, Bella announced that she would enter the Evolution Battle Royal for a women's world championship match at Clash in Paris. At the event on July 13, Bella finished in fourth place, being eliminated by Jax. The next night on Raw, Bella defeated Chelsea Green in her first singles match since 2018. On the August 1 episode of her and her sister's podcast show Nikki and Brie, Bella revealed that she suffered an injury on the July 28 episode of Raw while battling Piper Niven during an eight-woman tag team match, with her breast implants being dislocated and then afterwards pushed down into her ribs after she received an elbow drop. Over the next few weeks, she started feuding with Women's Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch. At Clash in Paris, Bella failed to win the title from Lynch.
On the November 10 episode of Raw, Bella attacked Women's World Champion Stephanie Vaquer after her successful title defense against Raquel Rodriguez, turning heel for the first time since 2018. She failed to win the title from Vaquer at Survivor Series: WarGames.
After a short hiatus, Nikki returned at the Royal Rumble on January 31, 2026, as a face alongside the returning Brie, officially reuniting The Bella Twins. At WrestleMania 42, Nikki and Brie were originally scheduled to compete for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship but due to an injury, Nikki was not medically cleared for the match. At the event on April 18, Nikki was replaced with a returning Paige, who teamed with Brie to win the titles. Bella made her return on the July 24 edition of Friday Night Smackdown fending off an attack from Fatal Influence and challenging them to a six-woman tag team match at SummerSlam. At Summerslam, the Bellas and Paige lost to Fatal Influence, after which the Bellas turned on Paige and turned heel.
Other media
Prior to working with WWE, the twins appeared on Meet My Folks. Both twins also appeared in the music video for "Right Side of the Bed" by the band Atreyu. They also appeared in the music video for "Na Na" by Trey Songz in 2014. The twins made a guest appearance on the MTV series Ridiculousness in October 2012.
The twins guest starred on the television series Psych, in the 2014 episode "A Nightmare on State Street". Nikki and Brie were a part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in July 2013, and starred in their own spinoff entitled Total Bellas. The show premiered on E! on October 5, 2016. Nikki and Brie co-starred in the 2014 independent film Confessions of a Womanizer, and provided voices for the 2015 movie The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!. Both twins appeared on the WWE YouTube show The JBL & Cole Show. She appeared at the Miss USA 2013 pageant as one of the celebrity judges. They appeared at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they presented the award for Best Female. The twins were both nominated for Choice Female Athlete at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards, an award they would later win at the 2016 ceremony.
On November 21, 2016, Nikki and Brie unveiled their new YouTube channel, "The Bella Twins". The sisters' channel features daily fashion, beauty, travel, fitness, relationship, and health videos, along with daily video blogs, created by the twins themselves. On April 2, 2018, The Bella Twins revealed that they were awarded the YouTube Gold Creator Award for reaching 1 million subscribers for their channel.
The Bella Twins appeared in YouTuber Lilly Singh's video "When Someone Tries to Steal Your BFF" on March 2, 2017. On August 21, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched their own wine label called Belle Radici in collaboration with Hill Family Estates and Gauge Branding. Nikki Bella was one of the celebrities competing on the 25th season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev. She was eliminated on October 30, 2017.
On November 1, 2017, Nikki and Brie launched Birdiebee, a lifestyle intimates and activewear brand. The line includes transitional intimates, activewear, and loungewear aimed at "empowering and educating women through mirroring the twins' passion for life, strength, women's health and wellness, and fun."
Personal life
In May 2014, Nikki revealed on Total Divas that she had married her high school sweetheart at the age of 20; the marriage was annulled three years later.
Nikki began dating John Cena in 2012. The couple became engaged on April 2, 2017, when Cena proposed to her after their mixed tag-team match at WrestleMania 33. On April 15, 2018, the couple called off the engagement and canceled their wedding, which was planned for May 5, 2018.
She began dating her Season 25 Dancing with the Stars partner and Russian dancer Artem Chigvintsev in January 2019. On January 3, 2020, the couple became engaged.
On July 31, 2020, Nikki gave birth to their first child, a son. The couple married on August 26, 2022. On August 29, 2024, Chigvintsev was booked into Napa County Jail on a felony domestic violence charge which involved him inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. However, Nikki would not publicly discuss the incident, with her representative describing it as a "private matter." Almost two weeks after Chigvintsev's arrest, on September 11, 2024, Nikki filed for divorce. In court documents, Nikki cited "irreconcilable differences" with Chigvintsev and sought "legal and physical" custody of their child, but also requested that Chigvintsev be allowed to have child visitation. Both were granted restraining orders against each other. Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley declined to file criminal charges against Chigvintsev, stating there was not enough evidence to prove he inflicted injury to his wife. Nikki sought full custody of the child when she filed for divorce, requesting Chigvintsev have supervised visitation with their son and undergo anger management classes. However, after a court hearing in Napa County, it was announced the parents will share joint custody of their son, as Chigvintsev had previously requested when he submitted his divorce response in September.
Nikki and her sister Brie are supporters of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles.
