All About Nikki Garcia and Artem Chigvintsev's Son Matteo

Nikki Garcia and Artem Chigvintsev welcomed Matteo in 2020

Nikki Garcia, formerly known as Nikki Bella, is a total mom to her son, Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev.

The Total Divas star’s dream of motherhood came true in 2020 when she welcomed Matteo with Dancing with the Stars pro Artem Chigvintsev.

"It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “I can’t imagine life without being a mom and experiencing the miracle of life and raising a child. I’m just so family-oriented that I couldn’t imagine not having that family life.”

Related: Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev's Relationship Timeline

Having Matteo has made Nikki realize just how “selfless” she can be. In 2023, the retired wrestler told PEOPLE, “You're just willing to give it all up for this one special human being."

Chigvintsev and Bella wed two years after Matteo was born. However, the dancer's arrest on a charge of corporal injury to a spouse ultimately led Bella to file for divorce in September 2024.

Here's everything to know about Nikki Garcia and Artem Chigvintsev's son, Matteo.

He was born in 2020

Nikki welcomed her first child, Matteo, on July 31, 2020.

The TV personality was on her way to get induced early when her water broke at the doctor’s office. A month after Matteo was born, Nikki told PEOPLE that she and Artem didn't realize how intense his birth would be.

"I labored for 22 hours, and I pushed for two hours while wearing a mask because of COVID-19," she said. "It was 118 degrees in Phoenix, and our room wouldn't get colder than 76 degrees, so I was burning hot the whole time."

Nikki recalled looking at Artem and telling him to put on The Lumineers. “And literally we 'Hey Ho'-ed and 'Ophelia'-ed Matteo into this world," she explained. "I have never pushed so hard in my life. I almost tore off the handlebars!"

He and his cousin were born a day apart

Nikki’s son was born the day before her twin sister, Brie Garcia, gave birth to her own son, Buddy Dessert, on Aug. 1, 2020.

When the siblings revealed to PEOPLE in 2020 that they were expecting at the same time, Nikki confessed that it was a “total surprise.”

On her Instagram, Nikki wrote, “@thebriebella This life just wants you and I to be twinning at everything we do lol and even though we were shocked, beyond shocked, here’s another journey that I am so grateful to God to have you by my side.“

The sisters' sons aren’t just cousins but also “BFF’s for Life," as Brie penned on Instagram in 2021.

The following year, Brie told Entertainment Tonight that Matteo and Buddy were “already a perfect little tag team.” She also described the duo’s relationship as “really cute,” adding, “We always look at them and we are like, 'They act like brothers.' "

His name has a special meaning

Nikki picked her son’s name after a conversation with her trainer, who named his son Matteo and shared with her about his strength. "When he said, 'Oh, my Matteo,' I got alligator chills from head to toe,” she told PEOPLE in 2020.

"So I came home and I go, 'Artem, if we're having a boy, his name's Matteo,' " Nikki added. "I got this feeling when my trainer was talking about him. It means God's gift."

She also explained Matteo's middle name, Artemovich, saying in “the Russian culture and tradition, you always take the father's first name as the middle name and you add 'vich' if it's a boy."

The proud mom noted that her son’s moniker is a “strong name.” Nikki explained, “I love it because you rarely hear it. I had such an attachment to it. I just feel like my Matteo is such a light in this world. It fits in perfect."

He missed his parents’ wedding

Nikki and Artem, who got engaged in France in November 2019, got married two years after becoming parents. Matteo was supposed to be the ring bearer at his parents’ wedding in Paris but ended up missing the ceremony because he was sick.

"We both don't even remember the ring part because we both kept looking at each other like, 'Are we terrible parents, like putting our rings on and we were just told our son is vomiting in the back?' " Nikki told E! News. "He went back to the hotel, and he actually ended up being okay. But I'm sad we don't have that moment, but it's okay. We got to see him before."

He met his paternal grandparents in Turkey

Before his and Nikki’s 2022 wedding, Artem took Matteo to Turkey so he could meet his grandparents, Vladimir and Anna, in person for the first time. The emotional moment was filmed for E!’s Nikki Bella Says I Do.

“Beyond grateful Matteo finally got to meet his Babushka & Dedushka,” Nikki captioned a clip from the meeting on her Instagram in 2023. “I pray and hope one day we all get to be together! And more than just a week."

She continued, "Family truly is everything! And so happy we got to documented this all of this, so Matteo has it as he gets older and that we get to watch it always!”

He loves to cook

Matteo is his dad’s “little helper” in the kitchen: In 2023, the dancer posted a video of Matteo and him baking brownies.

The toddler showed off his mixing skills while his dad tried to manage the potentially messy situation.

“You have to listen to dada, you can’t just keep eating this,” Artem said as Matteo sampled the batter.

There was “hesitation” over him appearing on TV

While Nikki is no stranger to television, she told PEOPLE in 2020 that she and Artem don’t want Matteo to grow up on reality TV.

"We want him to be able to make that decision one day,” she said. "Even though he's in moments, we didn't let him film a lot. Even in a series, we're very protective of it. I definitely think there's other parts of Artem and I that we could [explore]."

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