UPDATE 2/5/2026 at 11:38 a.m. ET — Cooper DeJean has addressed Nikki Garcia’s WWE shoutout amid rumors the pair are dating.
“It was crazy to kind of see that,” the Philadelphia Eagles star, 22, told People on Wednesday, February 4, two days after Nikki, 42, seemingly hinted at their romance during a Raw event alongside sister Brie Garcia at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena.
DeJean blushed and grinned as he continued, “I don’t know. I didn’t really expect that. Obviously, it was in Philly, so …”
Original story continues below:
Leave it to Philadelphia fans to throw WWE star Nikki Garcia off her game enough to seemingly confirm what we already know — that she is dating Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean.
Nikki, 42, was in Philly for Raw on Tuesday, February 2, where she hosted a segment with twin sister Brie Garcia. At first, Nikki thought the crowd was booing her.
“Is that for the Eagles not getting in the Super Bowl or for us?” she asked.
“I actually think they’re saying Coop,” Brie interjected.
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After appearing flustered for a moment, Nikki replied, “Can you blame a girl for having good taste? I mean, Pro Bowl, baby.”
Nikki’s apparent confirmation that she and DeJean, 22, are an item comes a month after a source told Us Weekly in January that she had “gone to a couple” of Eagles games. (DeJean, for his part, has not publicly addressed the alleged relationship.)
“They have hung out,” the insider added at the time. “She is having fun and enjoying being single.”
The source also explained that when Nikki “isn’t on the road she is at home with her son.”
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Nikki welcomed her son, Matteo, in 2020 with former Dancing With the Stars partner Artem Chigvintsev. The couple married in 2022 before Nikki filed for divorce two years later, following Chigvintsev’s arrest for felony domestic violence. The two were eventually granted restraining orders against each other and no criminal charges were filed. They settled their divorce in 2025.
Nikki opened up to Us in January 2025 about her personal life, saying she was not looking for a relationship.
“I’ve really taken the time to kind of date myself,” she told Us. “I have days where I get to focus a lot on me and self-care and just really get to know who I am in my 40s. I feel like I have this whole new era to look at, and I get to choose how I want to be and [where to] take it.”
By fall 2025, the dating rumors had started, spurred by Nikki attending an Eagles game and sharing a video via Instagram that included her posing next to DeJean’s locker.
“So blessed for the people around me, new friends and old, who make life so special and fun,” she wrote in the caption.
Nikki then spoke out against fans who jumped to conclusions about her alleged relationship with a man 20 years her junior.
“It’s crazy because I actually haven’t been touched or done anything in so long,” Nikki told Brie on a December 2025 episode of their SiriusXM “The Nikki & Brie Show” podcast. “It’s funny when people call me a whore when I actually haven’t had intimacy in a really long time, even think of kissing.”
Nikki added, “I haven’t even kissed someone in so long. It’s, like, kind of crazy. I was thinking of this last night: ‘Do I know how to kiss?’ You know when it’s been so long? I mean, I hope [I still do]. I’m about to make out with my pillow to make sure I still got it.”
