Fan-Favourite WWE Personalities Nikki and Brie Bella Discuss Season 5 of E! Hit Reality Series TOTAL BELLAS

Following a recent induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame and the release of co-memoir Incomparable, WWE personalities and reality stars Nikki and Brie Bella are back for Season 5 of E!’s hit reality series TOTAL BELLAS with new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This season, the pair weather relatable, real-life challenges and joys with job losses, engagements, and a double pregnancy. As raw, honest, and revealing as ever in a new interview, Nikki and Brie talk about the success of the series and the personal and professional journeys they will embark on in Season 5. What would you say is the reason for the success of Total Bellas? Brie: I feel why TOTAL BELLAS is so successful is my sister and I have always been open books, and we told each other if we go into reality [TV] we have to let the good, the bad and the ugly out there, and we can’t hide anything. And I feel like so many people have related to that. I mean, it’s definitely been hard to showcase our breakups and our marriages, to just the hard parts in life. At the same time we know someone else out there is going through it. What I really love about this season is not only do we have a new team so the show just looks beautiful, but also, the one thing about reality TV is it brings out things what you’re going through in life that you didn’t even realise. For myself, it’s my marriage – I guess I’d been kind of coasting in my marriage, and I feel like married couples should have kids. The one thing you realise is your kids become your whole world – you put them first – then after kids it’s your career, because you’re looking to make money and do your own thing, and your marriage kind of goes to the end of the priority list. I realised with Bryan and I, we had to put our marriage first or we were going to lose it, and people can see us on that journey this season. Even for myself, I just had to learn how to balance everything. I thought I had a hang of being a career woman, and a mom and a wife, but I didn’t. And so that’s the journey you’ll move on with me this season. Nikki: So my journey this season, we have a new cast member, Artem (Chigventsev), who is my fiancée slash baby daddy, and I kind of go on this rollercoaster ride where I’m just trying to fight this true love that I have because I’m falling in love so quickly. And a lot of people chime in, you’ll see this season, from family members to friends, and it’s something I just try and fight, because what Artem and I go through in less than a year is what couples will go through in four or five years. From the loss of a job, to moving, falling in love quickly, getting engaged, getting pregnant. So you really see that journey with me, and trying to figure it out, and why I’m trying to push this person away but wanting them close. So I feel like it’s so relatable, because I think sometimes when love hits us in the face, as human beings we don’t know how to handle it because we think ‘Isn’t this supposed to take time? Why am I falling so hard for this person so quickly?’ and I think a lot of people will relate. What would you say was one highlight and one low point from last season (Season 4) for you both? Nikki: Last season a highlight for me was competing against Ronda Rousey for (WWE) Evolution, I mean that was the top of my career, it was truly incredible. At the same time, a lowlight for me was coming out of a really big break-up, and I was at a place that we found love and was our home, and to go back there so quickly, I struggled. I was struggling with depression and sadness, and it was such an inner battle, because I’m doing something so amazing in my career and yet, at the same time, I’m so sad inside. So that’s definitely my highlight and my lowlight from Season 4. Brie: I would say the highlight of last season, gosh, would just be making my comeback and being at (WWE) Evolution and the all-women’s pay-per-view show. I definitely would say my lowlight would be that my comeback didn’t go the way I wanted it to – it was something that I thought ‘Oh this will be easy, go on the road every week, leaving my daughter at home, and I’ll physically be the same in the ring,’ and I wasn’t. I thought I was just going to walk in being that girl in my 20s kicking butt in the ring, and it wasn’t that [laughs]! So that was really hard on me, but I still left my comeback feeling empowered because my sister and I had been at the forefront of this women’s Evolution, so to see for the first time ever an all-women’s pay-per-view show, that left me feeling really fulfilled and grateful. You’re both executive producers and you star on the show – how do you juggle wearing two different hats? Do you find yourselves conflicted sometimes between the two roles? Brie: Nicole and I definitely have to wear our producer hats, and then our cast hats, so one thing we said being executive producers is that we can’t ever take things out or try to make people look good. When we go in on the editing and we’re looking at everything, we have to look at a different point of view. And we do that, and there’s definitely times when we’re watching stuff, like my sister (Nikki) this season – her and Artem get into a really big fight, and her watching that I was thinking ‘Oh my gosh.’ But even though we’re torn and this is super embarrassing, we keep it in because we know it’s relatable. Nikki: Just like Brie said on wearing different hats, I love being an executive producer. I’ve always loved being behind the camera – being a part of the creative and producing television – but I sometimes feel at times, with my family, I can wear my producer hat too much, and sometimes I have to show a little bit more compassion and be a cast member. But as Brie said, when I had to watch Artem and I in this fight, it was really difficult. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing, I don’t want anyone to see it,’ but at the same time the producer in me is like ‘OK this is relatable, it’s great TV, so we’re keeping it in.’ Even with my relationship with Artem, when he got cut from DANCING WITH THE STARS – and you see it in the first episode – you’re seeing this raw emotion. And when I was watching it back I was like ‘Ugh, should the girlfriend in me have stopped the cameras rolling as he got this phone call and started to cry?’ But the producer in me didn’t stop the cameras because I know you never really get footage like that. And so I battle it, but the one thing I always do is, I talked to Artem after and said, ‘If you don’t want that to air, we don’t have to have it air’ and ‘Did I overstep my boundaries by not stopping the cameras?’ So I always make sure to have those conversations so I can stay being a great producer but also be that great sister and fiancée, to my family and to Artem. How much have you changed since Season 1 to now in Season 5? Brie: It’s so crazy because when I think of myself at the beginning of filming reality – even with TOTAL DIVAS – I was this professional wrestler travelling the world, having fun, and I had my fiancée husband join me on that and I didn’t have to worry about anything. And it’s so weird my journey from TOTAL BELLAS Season 1 to now, just how much I’ve evolved into more of, I guess, a grown-up! From becoming a wrestler to an entrepreneur; becoming someone who lived life only thinking about myself to now having a family and putting them first, and it’s just crazy how much I feel I have evolved. And since I became a mom I really found my voice and really learned how to use it and not have any fear behind it. So I’ve seen myself just become stronger and more brave. Nikki: I feel like I’ve grown up so much! It was funny because I was looking at awards I had won in high-school, and one I was voted to be a life-long sorority girl! And I was like well I guess I’ve always liked being the life of the party, and you’ve always seen that on TOTAL DIVAS and TOTAL BELLAS. But I feel like I have grown so much as a woman, knowing what I want out of life and that I won’t settle for anything else than what I want and what I strive to be. And I feel like through reality I’ve got to know myself more, because there’s something about watching yourself back, you can no longer lie to yourself anymore. I can’t lie about my feelings or how I am as a person because I’m watching it – I’m watching myself unfold for the past almost seven years. And I feel I have grown to really knowing what I want out of life, the things I had to work on as a woman, and just really becoming the woman that I was meant to be. Are you in lockdown now because of the coronavirus pandemic, and if so how do you spend time these days? Nikki: So Brie and I are very lucky because we live next door to each other, and I’m talking like zero property line [laughs]! So we’ve just been isolating together. And we’re here over in Phoenix, Arizona, and we feel very lucky because a lot of people are alone, or it’s just their family. We’re trying to make this fun, I mean as fun as it could be – I’m not gonna lie, we have some really tough days and we’re very stressed, and have a lot of anxiety, especially being pregnant. But we do different nights of who cooks dinner, and we try to decorate the table really pretty, or we go on nature walks, or we try to do fun activities. I have to say I feel very lucky having Birdie (Brie’s daughter) around, because Birdie doesn’t know what’s going on, so every day to her is so fun and the family’s around her, and she not only brings us hope but takes us out of what’s going on in the world for just a few hours. We constantly are praying for the best and we do believe there’s gonna be light at the end of the tunnel. Just like the Queen said, we’re all going to meet again, and we just have to get through this together and really just honour and praise our frontline and listen to them and stay home. But Brie and I are just really trying to make it very positive. You say in the show you do almost everything together – what do you love most about each other, and what do you like least? Nikki: What I love most about my sister is I feel blessed that she truly is my partner in crime. Having a sister who’s a best friend is really nice because you have someone who will keep all your secrets, who will tell you the truth whether it hurts or not, even when it comes to wearing an ugly outfit! She and I love the same wine, we like to vacation together. It’s nice when you have someone like that, when you enjoy their company so much and you like to do things together but you also trust them. The one thing I like the least about her, is maybe is that she is hard on me! Not that I think she’s horrible to me, but because she is so honest I think, you could just butter that up a bit, or maybe not tell me so much of how you feel, so that would be it! Brie: What I love most about my sister is how driven she is. When she has her mind set on something she will give 110 per cent, it doesn’t matter how tired she is, she doesn’t care how busy she is, she gives that to you. And the thing I like least about her is she always fills up my plate – I’m like ‘Hey I like off days!’ She likes to work seven days a week, I’m like give me my weekends please!. So I think that’s the biggest battle with her is she always feels there’s room on my plate. But the one thing I’m going to like is when she becomes a mom in August, she’s gonna look at me and be like ‘You’re right, we need off days!’ TOTAL BELLAS airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on E!