Nikki Garcia wants to “get her groove back” before getting back in the dating game.
Four months after divorcing Artem Chigvintsev, the reality star spoke to Us Weekly about the role her “mom bod” insecurities are playing in the process.
“I can definitely see myself falling in love again,” the retired wrestler, 41, said on Wednesday, noting that it won’t “be anytime soon.”
She explained, “I think it’s going to take me a while to get back in that place and also to just feel confident about my body.
“I feel great, but it’s, like, when I’m naked, you just kind of sadly start to dissect yourself,” the athlete, who previously went by her stage name, Nikki Bella, added. “What if the person isn’t a dad and he doesn’t understand a ‘mom bod?’”
Garcia, who welcomed son Matteo, now 4, in July 2020, is worried that if she “date[s] someone younger,” he’ll think, “Oh, she has an older body.”
The “Total Bellas” alum, who also thinks her “boobs kind of sag from nursing,” said, “I’m not going to just give that up. I need to be in a good place for [dating]. Mama needs her groove back first for herself.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Garcia insisted that she will never get married — and “definitely” won’t have more children.
“I don’t ever want to sign paperwork again,” she said. “If I find the right person, I don’t mind [a commitment ceremony], but I don’t want to be legally [bound].”
As for why she doesn’t see herself giving Matteo a sibling, the WWE star said that she is “getting back to [her]self finally.”
She joked, “I’m just getting out of the toddler years, and I don’t want to go back. I’m chugging cold brews to hang at the playground. … It’s a lot!”
Garcia and Chigvintsev, 42, tied the knot in Paris two years after Matteo’s arrival.
The “Total Divas” alum filed for divorce in September 2024 on the heels of her partner’s arrest on suspicion of corporal injury to a spouse.
The dancer denied any wrongdoing and the charges were dropped, with the former couple reaching a divorce settlement and co-parenting agreement in November 2024.
Garcia broke her silence on an episode of her and sister Brie Garcia’s podcast, “The Nikki & Brie Show,” the following month.
Nikki called co-parenting with the “Dancing With the Stars” pro “really hard and very emotional” in December 2024, saying she cries “every time” Matteo leaves.
She doubled down on the “incredibly tough” experience on Wednesday while acknowledging that she and Chigvintsev spent Christmas together for their little one’s sake.
“Matteo is OK and not affected. So that makes it easy,” Nikki said. “He’s happy to go to both homes.”
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