Nikki and Brie Bella revealed their mom, Kathy Laurinaitis, is undergoing brain surgery to remove a mass that is “paralyzing her face.”
“Our Mama Bella, our Gigi, our Gato is about to head into brain surgery. I ask for so many prayers, so much light and love sent her way,” Nikki, 36, wrote on Instagram on Tuesday, June 30. “Sadly they found what you can compare to a tumor on her brain stem.”
Meanwhile, Brie, also 36, shared her own post, writing, “They realized she doesn’t have Bells Palsey but a mass on her brain stem … couldn’t sleep because I was praying all night.”
Love you Mom @kathylaurinaitis
News of Laurinaitis’s surgery comes as both sisters are about to give birth. Nikki, who was previously engaged to John Cena, is pregnant with her first child, a boy, with fiancé Artem Chigvintsev, while Brie is expecting baby No. 2 with husband Daniel Bryan. The couple welcomed daughter Birdie in May 2017.
Nikki noted, “She’s loved by so many of us and just pray that her road to recovery is exactly what we are hoping for so we can put two new grandbabies in her arms soon.”
Almost exactly one year ago, Nikki was open with fans after doctors found a cyst on her brain. Luckily, the growth did not pose a threat to the professional wrestler.
“Thank God, it’s benign,” she said told TMZ Sports on June 20, 2019. “I’m so grateful for my health.”
The WWE Hall of Famer initially revealed the scare on . “I really wanted to go back and fight for the tag titles,” Nikki told Jimmy Fallon on June 19. “I’ve had my neck issues, and after neck surgery, it hasn’t been OK. I [felt] like I needed to get that checkup before we went back for the tag titles.”
She continued to explain that medical professionals highly recommended her retirement: “Then it came back that I herniated the disc above where I had surgery, I have all this inflammation around the metal, and then I have a cyst on my brain. So they were like, ‘You’re done, no more, you’re out.’”
Laurinaitis has appeared on her daughters’ reality show, Total Bellas, since 2016. That same year, she married retired WWE wrestler John Laurinaitis. In the most recent season, she expressed her concerns about Nikki and Brie reconnecting with their biological father, Jon Garcia. We wish her a speedy recovery.