Nikki and Brie Garcia, the twins who were associated with WWE for a long time, are getting frank about the recent allegations against WWE.
The sisters, who were previously a part of the WWE under the stage name The Bella Twins and left the company last year, shared a joint statement on their respective Instagram accounts about the recent allegations of sexual assault against the company, along with its co-founder Vince McMahon and WWE executive John Laurinaitis, by a former employee.
“We are shocked and disheartened with the recent allegations against members of the WWE,” the Garcia twins said Monday in their Instagram post. “It has been a lot to process since we found out this past week, just as you all did”
“This is something we don’t stand for or condone from anyone no matter who they are,” the sisters, who are also stepdaughters to Laurinaitis, added. “We want all women to feel safe and supported in the workplace and in their everyday lives.”
The statement comes a few days after former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit claiming that she experienced “physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault and trafficking” while working at the company.
Among her claims in the court documents, she alleged that McMahon “pushed” her for “a physical relationship” in exchange for her employment at the WWE and that he had recruited Laurinaitis to have “sexual relations” with her as well.
The woman said she was let go from the company after McMahon’s wife found out about their relationship in January 2022 and he had her sign an NDA “in exchange for payments.” However, after her employment was terminated, she claimed in the complaint that he still tried to “traffic” her to a WWE star.
The WWE did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on the lawsuit at the time. However, a spokesperson for WWE’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings told NBC News, “Mr. McMahon does not control TKO nor does he oversee the day-to-day operations of WWE. While this matter pre-dates our TKO executive team’s tenure at the company, we take Ms. Grant’s horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
Nikki and Brie previously announced on their Sirius XM show, The Nikki & Brie Show, in March 2023 that they made the difficult decision to leave the company after 16 years as they felt that it was time to embrace a “new chapter” in their lives as mothers, entrepreneurs, hosts, and executive producers.
Brie gave more insight into the decision a few months later saying that the sisters left the wrestling organization because “we got to a point where we just didn’t feel energetically aligned anymore with the WWE.”
“There was a moment where her and I looked at each other and kind of felt, ‘You know what? We’re all not seeing eye to eye any more,’ ” Nikki added. “We didn’t even have to say it, we could just look at each other and feel it.”
