What you need to know
Nikki Garcia is responding to the recent backlash she received for kissing her son on the lips.
On Thursday, January 15th’s episode of The Nikki & Brie Show, the 42-year-old WWE star formerly known as Nikki Bella opened up about some of the negative comments she received after sharing a photo of herself kissing her 5-year-old son, Matteo.
“It’s so weird. I mean, there was a pretty good reason why I turned off comments on that post, but it just goes to show why I don’t put my son on social media,” she said, adding that while there weren’t that many comments, there were enough to bother her.
“It was enough to piss me off, like, ‘I can’t believe she’s kissing my 5-year-old son on the lips.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re so bothered and annoyed. That’s crazy to me.’
The doting mother, who welcomed her son to Dancing with the Stars pro Artem Chigvintsev in 2020, said the comment “felt so disrespectful,” adding that it was “so disgusting” that people would comment on her son.
“It’s weird when people make opinions about your child, and…this is why I don’t post him, because I love my child to death. And you think I want to read this article about him?” she said. “But the kissing thing was so annoying to me and just annoying.”
“First of all, I love my son very much. I feel bad if your child wants to kiss you on the lips and you refuse. I think it’s sad because you don’t know how it affects their psyche,” she added. “Matteo, who is pictured on the cover, said it was his first time seeing a Lego Santa. He was so excited that the woman just took pictures.”
She went on to explain that at that moment, her son grabbed her and gave her a big kiss on the lips. Garcia called the moment she spent with her son “the cutest thing” because he was “excited and grateful” to see Lego Santa.
“It was such an amazing moment. And when he showed up in the last episode and we kissed him, people were posting it on Twitter saying, ‘I can’t believe she asked him to kiss me,'” she said. “I’m like, ‘You’re wild.'”
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The Total Divas star tells PEOPLE that when she became a mother, it was “something I dreamed of my whole life.”
“It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “I can’t imagine life without becoming a mother, experiencing the miracle of life and raising children. I’m very family-oriented, so I couldn’t imagine not having that home life.”
Mateo’s presence made Garcia realize how “selfless” he was. In 2023, the retired wrestler told PEOPLE:
Chigvintsev and Garcia married two years after Matteo was born. However, Bella ultimately filed for divorce in September 2024 after the dancer was arrested on suspicion of spousal assault.
