In her new autobiography Incomparable co-written with sister Brie, Nikki Bella revealed that she was raped twice as a teenager. In the book, Nikki stated that she was raped at age 15 by a fellow high school student that she “thought was a friend.” Nikki stated that she was raped again a year later after being drugged by a college-age man.
Nikki discussed the incident with People.com:
“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,” she says. “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,” she admits. “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,'” she recalls. “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.”