John Cena angered Chinese fans this week when he referred to Taiwan as an independent country in a promo interview for F9. He offered an apology for the controversial gaffe on social media, but what made it particularly shocking was that he delivered it in Mandarin. People were stunned by his mastery of the language.
It seems the wrestler-turned-movie star is full of surprises. Take his love life: plenty of us know that he had a longtime on-and-off relationship with Nikki Bella before getting hitched last year. But did you know that he was married before that? The union was fairly brief, but the couple did have a very long history together. Find out everything we know about John Cena’s first wife, Elizabeth Huberdeau, and what she’s doing today.
John Cena Got Married In 2020 To Shay Shariatzadeh
Cena has been married to Shay Shariatzadeh since October 2020.
Shariatzadeh works as a product manager at Microsoft—a job she took last month, according to LinkedIn.
“I love technology and people!” she wrote in her bio. “I excel at building rapport with customers, determining market needs and translating those into engineering requirements so we can build successful products that people love.”
Cena mostly keeps a tight lid on his relationship with Shariatzadeh. What little intel we have about their romance comes from the actor’s Playing With Fire co-star Keegan- Michael Key. In an interview with ET, he recalled asking Cena to hang out after shooting; Cena said no, citing a previous engagement.
He confessed he had met Shariatzadeh while dining out on location, and that he “couldn’t take [his] eyes off her.”
The couple kept their wedding low key and exchanged “I dos” at an attorney’s office in Tampa, Florida.
John Cena’s First Wife Was Elizabeth Huberdeau
Cena was previously married to Elizabeth Huberdeau, also known as Liz Cena. The two were reportedly high school sweethearts dating back to their days in the Boston area. However, they didn’t tie the knot until 2009.
It’s odd that we know so little about the two, considering they were together for a long time. But it looks like Cena was once someone who separated his personal and professional life. He surprised many fans when he announced his engagement to Huberdeau at the premiere of his 2009 film 12 Rounds.
It was probably a wise decision to keep things under wraps, as the marriage failed just after three years. The couple divorced in 2012, at which point he began dating fellow wrestling star, Nikki Bella.
Bella’s relationship with Cena was far more public but met the same fate. In April 2018, after a rocky six-year relationship, the couple called it quits. The announcement came only one month before they were set to marry in Mexico.
Why Did John Cena And Elizabeth Huberdeau Divorce?
Cena filed for divorce from Huberdeau in May 2012, claiming the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”
Huberdeau lawyered up quickly, retaining the services of Linda Hogan’s divorce lawyer Raymond Rafool. The attorney told TMZ that his client was blindsided by the filing. He also revealed that Cena had approached her earlier with a pre-divorce financial settlement agreement, but she refused to sign it. She had been holding on to the hope that they could make amends.
Huberdeau did sign a prenup before marrying Cena, which made it difficult to stake a claim on his massive fortune. But she remained pretty stubborn about things and made the split a difficult process.
First, she filed legal documents claiming that his divorce petition was full of inaccuracies. For instance, he used her maiden name as opposed to her married legal name. He also failed to attach a copy of the prenup with the filing, which is required by the court.
The next month, Rafool told TMZ that he had been receiving tips that Cena had cheated on her during the marriage, “which, if true, could be grounds for Liz to challenge the prenup.”
But TMZ did some digging and speculated that finances may have played a part in the breakup. At one point, a contractor even fielded a $110,000 lien on their home for unpaid work.
No matter what the reason was, it’s now water under the bridge. In July 2012, the couple put their messy relationship to rest.
“All matters [in the divorce] have been settled and resolved amicably,” said Rafool.
Terms of the settlement remained confidential.
Cena took six years to comment on his former marriage, but he kept the details vague. In March 2018, he spoke to radio station hit105 and gave them this brief reflection:
“I don’t have a family. I tried marriage once and I realized [my] WWE marriage was the one that was going to survive.”
But in an exploitative move, the WWE tried to capitalize on the situation. Watch Cena reference the divorce as a low point in his life in this promo for Wrestlemania 29:
Where Is Elizabeth Huberdeau Now?
Huberdeau all but disappeared after the divorce. She doesn’t seem to have any social media accounts, and she’s never done any sort of tell-all interview to share her side of the story. It seems she wants to move on from an unfortunate chapter in her life.