Inside John Cena’s marriage with Persian engineer Shay Shariatzadeh

John Cena offered a rare glimpse into his marriage with his wife, Shay Shariatzadeh.

During an interview with WSJ. Magazine, 47-year-old John Cena was asked about his most prized possession and responded, “The relationship with my wife.”

In the profile published on Monday, July 8, Cena revealed the secrets to a happy marriage and relationship, stating, “Honesty, communication, genuine love, gratitude and vulnerability have helped us tremendously.”

Cena and Shariatzadeh started dating roughly a year after he and Nikki Garcia ended their engagement. A year into his relationship with Shariatzadeh, Cena proposed while they were celebrating Valentine’s Day in 2020.

“It was beautiful,” he reminisced during The Howard Stern Show in February.

“I had the ring in my pocket because I was afraid I’d lose it in my bag, by chance, and I [decided to] ask her right now. So I blew all the special plans and just said ‘Hey, there’s no better moment,’ because there wasn’t — it was so beautiful, still, we were both so open and it just happened right there.”

A few months after their engagement, Us Weekly revealed that the couple had secretly married in Tampa in October 2020.

“Love involves constant effort,” he wrote on X just days before the couple's wedding. “When you are truly ready to let love in and give to love all it needs to flourish, I feel there is no greater more rewarding connection.”

They had a second wedding ceremony in July 2022. “John and Shay didn’t have a proper ceremony the first time out, it was a deliberately private affair because they wanted to do it with the minimum of attention of fuss,”  a source informed Us Weekly a month later. 

“This time was different though, they booked out a beautiful place and made it a very special occasion. … They’re just so in love and grateful to have found each other.”

After both ceremonies, a source exclusively informed Us that Cena and Shariatzadeh might be ready to start expanding their family.

“He said for so long that he didn’t want kids but now he’s warming to the idea more and more,” an insider revealed in August 2022. 

“They’ll go with the flow but it’s different with Shay, he feels wiser and more ready for the responsibility. It’s something they’d both love, for sure.”

Since then, they have been seen together at various events, such as the London premiere of Cena’s film Argylle, where they were observed showing affection while posing on the red carpet.