“Dancing With the Stars” alum Artem Chigvintsev still sees a future with estranged wife Nikki Garcia in Napa Valley, even though she filed for divorce last month and their two-year marriage was riven by a 911 call to the local Sheriff’s Department that resulted in the ballroom dancer being arrested on domestic violence charges.
“Artem has wanted to reconcile with Nikki,” a source has told Us Weekly this week. “He doesn’t want the family to be divided, and (would love) to put this behind them.”
Chigvintsev shares a 4-year-old son with Garcia, and presumably sees an opening with her, given that Napa County prosecutors declined to file charges against him because they didn’t believe they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russian-born dancer committed a crime.
Artem Chigvintsev and Nikki Garcia during ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ (ABC/Eric McCandless)
Unfortunately for Chigvintsev, the former WWE wrestler has no interest in getting back together with him. “Nikki wants to move forward,” the source also told Us Weekly.
For Garcia, moving forward presumably means continuing to work with Brie Garcia, her twin sister and former WWE wrestling partner, on staying in Napa Valley and making their Bonita Bonita wine. After the Bella Twins retired from professional wrestling and enjoyed success with their reality TV show, “Total Bellas,” they settled in Napa Valley in 2020 to put their own spin on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.
“In 2020 they decided to follow their hearts to Napa Valley,” the Bonita Bonita wine label said on its website. “Now they are raising their families in a place they love and living their dream.
The sisters opened a reservation-only Bonita Bonita tasting room in downtown Napa this past spring, with their website also saying that local residents will “always find” the sisters “drinking wine amongst the vines.” Their wines are supposed to be a “celebration of femininity and flavor,” produced “with care by passionate women,” the website said.
When Garcia and her sister opened their tasting room in May, Garcia wrote on Instagram: “The journey has been beautifully chaotic, the road has been long, a lot of sleepless nights, the hours have never felt enough but through it all we never stopped, we never gave up.”
But Garcia’s Napa Valley dream suffered a major setback on Aug. 29 when Chigvintsev called 911 from a Yountville location, requesting medical assistance and saying that shoes had been thrown at him, TMZ reported at the time.
Chigvintsev subsequently canceled the request for assistance, but sheriff’s deputies turned up anyway and took him into custody, based on deputies seeing a visible injury on the alleged victim, a sheriff’s spokesperson said. The victim was never identified but was presumed to be Garcia.
News of Chigvintsev’s arrest also ended what appeared to be a reality TV-style fairy-tale romance, involving the two celebrities. They met while appearing together on “Dancing With the Stars,” partnering for Season 25 in 2017. They began dating and became engaged in 2020. That year, Garcia also gave birth to their son.
After Napa Valley DA Attorney Allison Haley declined to file charges, Chigvintsev issued a statement, saying, “I am thankful that the truth has prevailed,” People reported. He also said his focus is on caring for their son, Matteo. “He is my world, and being his father is the greatest blessing in my life.”
But Chigvintsev also went on to file a request for restraining order against Garcia earlier this month, with his attorney claiming that his wife was the aggressor because she threw shoes at him, Us Weekly and People reported. When he tried to get himself and their son away from her by running upstairs, Garcia pushed her way into their bedroom. In his court papers, Chigvintsev said they started fighting and the situation escalated from there, Us Weekly reported.
For her part, Garcia hasn’t said anything publicly about the incident or the divorce, but a source told Us Weekly that there’s “minimal communication” between the exes.
As Chigvintsev reportedly hopes for reconciliation, his attorney is working on negotiating joint legal and physical custody of their son and a shared 50/50 custody schedule, People reported. “Fortunately, Artem has been able to spend time with Matteo almost every day since the 8/29/2024 incident,” Chigvintsev’s attorney, Ilona Antonyan, told People.
Chigvintsev presumably has time to be a hands-on father to his son. Prior to his arrest, Chigvintsev was not scheduled to return for Season 33 of “Dancing With the Stars,” E! News reported last month.
