The Bella Twins First Post-WWE Interview - Why They Left WWE

In their first exclusive post-WWE interview, the Bella Twins, Brie and Nikki (real names Nicole and Brianna Garcia), talk to Diva Dirt about their decision to leave WWE, how they reached the decision to leave, their time in WWE, winning the Divas Championship, their response to being called 'models' and more.

In this 40 minute chat, the Bellas talk openly and honestly on a range of topics including how they got started in the business, Colt Cabana's claims that they threatened to quit if they weren't called up, the time allotted to the Divas on TV, their thoughts on feuding with each other and more.

The full interview is available here:

Highlights

On deciding to leave WWE:

Nikki: "It was actually pretty recent [the decision to leave WWE]. Brie and I just decided that we needed a little bit of a break. When you've been on the road for five years, haven't seen your bed for five days straight, we kind of came to a point like, maybe we can rest our bodies for a little bit. It might not be permanent. You guys might see us soon, you may not. We just knew that we definitely needed to take a break."

Brie: "With any career you're in, there's always a life outside of your career and that's one thing when you're on the road 300 days of the year, you start missing your family, you miss your friends, you miss all the things you enjoy in life like going to the movies, museums. It's something that Nikki and I are really looking forward to in the next couple of months. It's funny, already two weeks gone [since leaving] and it's crazy how much we miss being at WWE, so you never know [what might happen]. But we're going to enjoy those things we loved outside of wrestling."

On knowing it was time to leave & the WWE family:

Nikki: "It was crazy, Brie and I — when our contracts were coming to an end, we kind of both looked at each other one day and were like, 'I'm exhausted'. And she was like, 'I'm exhausted'. We were like, 'Let's take a break'. I don't know if that's the twin connection, or the twin bond, that we both kind of felt it but we just looked at each other one day and we were just tired. We were really tired and sore. We were like, okay, let's do this. It was scary.

It's really sad because WWE, that was our life for six years straight. The people there are our family — those are my brothers and sisters there. I've only been gone for two weeks, it should be a fun vacation but I've actually missed a lot of people there. It's a lot of laughs, let me tell you. There's nothing better than being with that group 24/7."

Audio clips

Bellas talk about backstage reaction to their departure & not wanting to disappoint their fans:

Nikki Bella talks about Kharma, thought she was going to be ribbed at Extreme Rules: