Nikki Bella on son Matteo meeting Artem’s parents

American professional wrestler and reality star Stephanie Nicole Chigvintsev, popularly known by her stage name Nikki Bella, opened up about how she felt when she could not make it to travel with her son and husband Artem Chingvintsev to meet his parents in Turkey, days before their wedding — in an exclusive interview with The South African.

Nikki Bella Says I Do premiered in South Africa on Sunday 12 March at 19:05 on E! DStv channel 124. The following episodes of the four-part series release weekly.

ALSO READ: Exclusive: Nikki Bella reveals why she chose Paris for her wedding

NIKKI BELLA REVEALS HUSBAND ARTEM’S STRUGGLES

Former WWE star Nikki Bella, who now goes as Nikki Garcia, revealed that her husband Artem Chingvintsev has to deal with the struggle of his parents potentially not being able to attend his wedding. Artem is Russian and his parents are from Russia. So, it is difficult for them to leave the country with the current political climate.

In the series , Artem is trying to get his family to attend the wedding and meet his son Matteo for the first time.

“It’s just whether or not his family can make it because his family means so much to him and they just have a hard time… like they can’t ever leave Russia. And so you’ll see that in this series and that’s his struggle,” she said.

“How he navigates his family might, may or may not make it to the wedding and like all of the emotions that come with that,” she added.

ALSO READ: ‘Rollercoaster of emotions’: Exclusive interview with Nikki Bella

SPOILER ALERT

In an exclusive interview with The South African, Nikki revealed that Artem’s parents are not able to make it to Paris but the dancer and Matteo take a flight to meet them in Turkey. This was so they could meet Matteo.

“Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it to Paris,” she said.

“So it’s, it’s the third episode and Artem they end up getting to go to meet them in Turkey and it is probably the greatest rock and roll footage that has ever captured on reality TV,” she continued.

The reality star gushed over the moment Matteo got to meet his grandparents.

“The moment that like the parents meet Mateo and Artem sees them and just everything they’ve been through, through the past four years. It’s such a beautiful moment like I have chills all over my body thinking about it again and it’s emotional because it just truly shows you have a family that’s never met and when they finally get to see each other again and then meet the sun, it’s like full of emotions like you can’t help but cry,” she said.

The Total Bellas star also revealed that she could not make it to Turkey because she had just seven days to plan her wedding with her sister Brie Bella — who now goes by Brie Garcia. She revealed that it was tough to not join her husband and son.

“And it, and it’s just beautiful and you see how much Mateo is just a part of this family. I unfortunately couldn’t make it because we were at that point,” she said.

“It was, you know I was just happy that Mateo was going to meet his grandparents. We were seven days away from the wedding and had no venue, no flowers, no cake. And so it was tough not getting to see them, but I knew how important it was for Artem and Matteo and I didn’t want to take that away,” she continued.

ALSO READ: ‘Nikki Bella Says I Do’: Four-part series to air in SA this March