Just days before announcing their split, John Cena described his life at home with his fiancée Nikki Bella in detail — and according to him, their time together was spent mostly in the evenings.
In an April 5 video for Vanity Fair, the Blockers star broke down his daily routine, starting from the moment he wakes up between 6 and 7 a.m. After showering and having breakfast, Cena, 40, said he immediately heads to the gym.
“I do my first workout promptly after breakfast — I believe your memory is at its peak,” he said. “Sometimes I choose to study, usually it’s head to the gym and get business done.”
His workout consists first and foremost of a lengthy warmup: “At my age, I have to get the body ready for motion, so it’s about 45 minutes to an hour of warmup,” he explains. Then he gets to work, alternating two days of lower/full body workouts with two days of upper/full body workouts.
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After the gym, Cena said he showers and heads to his next place of business — but regardless of what that may be, he always tries to “maintain some sort of activity.”
“If errands fall in my lap, I will run them,” he said. “I don’t try to put off anything or procrastinate, I try to do what’s in front of me when it’s in front of me. For leisure, I actually just like to just keep my mind going. I’m learning a second language — I try to study Mandarin, if I can. That takes about 35-45 minutes at a whack, maybe an hour. And I truly enjoy messing around on the piano. It’s something that I started a year and a half ago and I’m not very good, but I get better every day and it’s very important to me because it keeps my mind sharp.”
Cena also revealed he typically avoids taking too many phone calls throughout the day: “I know phone calls are filled with conversation, and sometimes conversation can get away from you, so I try to prioritize — what is this person’s agenda, would would they like?” he said. “And if it constitutes a call, I’ll call them.”
The two exceptions to that rule?
“I call my mom often, because that’s the person I don’t mind spending a lot of my time talking to,” he said. “I call my mom, and I call the woman I love, Nicole. Those are probably the two most familiar numbers on my phone.”
Cena said he usually gets home “around 5 or 6 or 7 p.m.”
“And around that time, I officially end my day — as in, any business, any agenda, is over with,” he said. “I choose, if I’m so lucky, to be in the company of my bride-to-be — that is the start of our day.”
For dinner, Cena said he and Bella, 34, would either get takeout, go out to eat, or occasionally host dinner parties.
“This is where time escapes me and this is where I don’t necessarily watch the clock,” he said. “It’s like being in a casino: We could go to dinner at 7 p.m. and walk out of the restaurant at 1 o’clock in the morning.”
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The former fiancés and professional wrestlers, who were together for six years, announced their split on Sunday with a statement released via Twitter: “While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another. We ask that you respect our privacy during this time in our lives.”
The breakup came just weeks before they were set to tie the knot at a May 5 destination wedding, and a source told PEOPLE this week that Cena started getting cold feet as the date drew near. (The actor, who was previously married to Elizabeth Huberdeau from 2009-12, has admitted in the past that he didn’t want to get married again.)
RELATED: How John Cena & Nikki Bella Disagreeing Over Having Kids Caused Tension in Their Relationship
“He talked a really good game about having changed, about having his priorities straight, about knowing what’s important, and that it was her,” said the source. “But as the day got closer, it was like he just went back to who he’s always been — which is someone who puts himself first, always. He’s an incredibly dedicated, driven, ambitious guy. And for the longest time he said he didn’t think he had room in his life for a spouse or kids. It seems like in the end that was still the truth.”
The former couple’s romance unfolded on E!’s reality shows Total Divas and Total Bellas — and a TV special about their wedding was set to air in July. The concept has since been scrapped, but their relationship will still be a plot point in Total Bellas, which returns May 20.
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