Nikki Garcia and Artem Chigvintsev Were Legally Married 5 Months After Paris Wedding, According to Divorce Filing

09/12/2024 08:39 PM

The divorce filing comes nearly two weeks after Chigvintsev was arrested on a charge of corporal injury to a spouse

Nikki Garcia and Artem Chigvintsev didn't make their marriage official until five months after their wedding.

In Garcia's divorce petition submitted on Wednesday, Sept. 11, the former WWE star, 40, listed the estranged couple's date of marriage as January 19, 2023 despite having their Paris wedding in August 2022.

The filing comes nearly two weeks after Chigvintsev, 42, was arrested on a charge of corporal injury to a spouse in Napa Valley, California and hours after a source told PEOPLE that Garcia had obtained a divorce lawyer.

In 2017, the duo met when they were paired together on season 25 of Dancing with the Stars, although the retired WWE wrestler was engaged to John Cena at the time. In July 2018, Garcia and Cena officially ended their relationship after six years together.

Related: Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev's Relationship Timeline

The DWTS pair reconnected later that year and made their relationship Instagram official in March 2019. Since then, Garcia and Chigvintsev have celebrated several milestones together: They got engaged in November 2019, welcomed son Matteo in July 2020 and said, "I do" in August 2022.

Garcia and Chigvintsev faced a few hurdles on the road to the altar.

In June 2021, nearly two years after the couple announced their engagement, Garcia announced the couple's decision hit pause on wedding planning as they work on remodeling their new home.

"We haven't even lived in it yet and we're doing the outside and that takes so much work," she told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "We're still not even done designing. And so he and I both were just like, 'Let's get through the house. If it happens, it happens.'"

Related: Nikki Garcia Seeking Legal and Physical Custody of Her and Artem Chigvintsev's 4-Year-Old Son in Divorce

Five months later in November, Garcia shared that the couple would be pushing their wedding back due to COVID-19 travel restrictions despite their original plans for a wedding in fall 2021.

A few months later, she told PEOPLE that they postponed the wedding again. On Jan. 20, Chigvintsev announced he was diagnosed with pneumonia and was stepping away from his The DWTS: Live! Tour "due to unexpected health issues."

At the Fanatics Super Bowl Party in February 2022, Garcia told PEOPLE that the couple were looking at Paris for their nuptials. "We feel like it's the easiest to get his parents there," she said. "We're figuring out dates, so we'll see, but we're thinking that Paris would be the perfect place."

She also said she would "love" to have the wedding within the next few months but added, "there's just a lot of complications right now."

Related: Artem Chigvintsev and Nikki Garcia Marked 2-Year Wedding Anniversary Days Before His Arrest

Then, in a March 2022 episode of The Bellas Podcast, Garcia said that she was re-evaluating her wedding plans with Chigvintsev, who had recovered from his month-long battle with pneumonia.

She said, "the main reason we've hesitated" had to do with money. "Like, financially, we have so much more going on in our lives to think, for Artem and I, for the past two years, of putting our money into a wedding — it's probably the main reason we've hesitated," Garcia shared.

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She explained her decision further in an interview with PEOPLE in April of that year, saying, "Life is really stressful. We're barely home together at the same time. There's a lot more, I don't want to say important things in life, but a lot more [to focus on]," she said, adding, "Like, we want Matteo to go to private school, so to spend what private schools cost on florals at our wedding, I'm like, I think I'll go with education."

Nearly three years after getting engaged, a source told PEOPLE that Garcia and Chigvintsev wed in Paris in August 2022. The pair announced the news on Instagram with two wedding photos: a close-up of the couple's rings and another image of the newlyweds looking at the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

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