Nikki Bella Says She Was Raped Twice

By AG

Posted on May 5, 2020

• Nikki Bella Says She Was Raped Twice

Former WWE Divas Champion Nikki Bella opened up about her painful past in her memoir, Incomparable, which she wrote alongside her sister, Brie.

She revealed that she was raped by a fellow high school student she “thought was a friend,” she said in the book. Then, at 16, she was raped again after being drugged by a college man.

Below is what she wrote:

“There is the horrible offense in the moment, and then the shame and blame that follow and feel almost worse than the original pain. When something like this happens to you, you understand the blame-the-victim mentality, how easy it is to feel shame rather than anger, how easy it is to feel like you could have stopped it yourself.”

While speaking to PEOPLE, Nikki revealed why she hid it for so long:

“When that happened to me, I immediately just felt so ashamed and blamed myself, and that’s what made me want to keep it such a secret. And keeping that a secret and blaming myself, I started to lose my confidence. I started to disrespect myself. And then the relationships I got into at a young age, I let other people disrespect me and felt like, that’s okay, this is what I deserved.

I was like that for a really long time. I would go to therapy on and off. Looking at it now I’m like, ‘Oh Nicole, I wish you just would’ve let go at a young age. So much would have changed for you.’ And I think that’s what made me really want to tell these stories finally.

When the #MeToo movement happened, I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I feel like, if I’m having these younger women look up to me, maybe I can help them and have them not hold onto this as long as I did.

It wasn’t until I was 28 and in a relationship where someone started to teach me how to respect myself. That’s how long I held on to things and felt I had no boundaries. And I’d always look at Brie like, ‘Oh, she has boundaries, she treats herself with such respect. How do I not have this?’ And I knew why. But I held onto it for so long.

When I look back at just decisions I made based off of it, I wish I could have heard my words now as a 36-year-old woman then, and be like, ‘You’re going to be okay.'”

She plans to help younger females using her book:

“I hope whoever reads the book will throw on whatever imaginary cape they dream of and say, ‘I’m the hero of my own story and will conquer whatever I want to do!'”