WWE star Carmella, real name Leah Van Dale, recently announced that she’s pregnant with her and her husband Corey Graves’ first child.
The professional wrestling star shared her announcement on Good Morning America and several emotional posts on her social media, including a carousel of photos (below) featuring her and Graves with Carmella’s baby bump visible.
A more recent video post features her three stepchildren, with Graves presumably filming the occasion.
In the video, Carmella has gifted each of her stepchildren with a pair of sneakers, and it appears the shoes are major hits with the kids.
After enjoying their reactions to the gifts, Carmella tells them there is one more pair of sneaks in a bag sitting on the table.
As her stepdaughters and stepson open a smaller box revealing a pair of baby sneakers, they soon realize what it means.
The three children become emotional before offering congratulations and celebrating the moment with Carmella, hugging her.
Carmella announces pregnancy via GMA and social media
In her Instagram post’s caption, Carmella said she’d waited for “what feels like forever” to share the video. She also gushed over her stepkids being part of her life as she talked about adding to her and Graves’ “#blendedfamily.”
“These three kiddos have completely changed my life and made me realize just how much I want to be a mom. If this new baby turns out to be half as smart, talented, funny and kind as my step kids, I’ll be one lucky mama,” she wrote.
She added that she didn’t know what she did to deserve them in her life and called her and Graves “blessed” as they welcome another member of their family.
The pregnancy announcement was popular with fans and followers, bringing in over 75,000 likes and 3,700-plus comments.
The big news arrived as Carmella hadn’t been featured in WWE programming for quite some time. She was last seen teaming up with Chelsea Green several months ago but soon disappeared. Green began working with other tag team partners, including Piper Niven and Sonya Deville.
Carmella revealed the news exclusively on ABC’s Good Morning America earlier this week, saying she’d been sitting on the news since March.
“It’s just all been such a whirlwind,” she said during GMA, adding, “I think because of my past, it was hard to get excited off the bat about this one, but I was cautiously optimistic. I try to have a good mindset, a positive mindset this time around, and it’s working. So I’m very happy about that.”
Carmella previously suffered two miscarriages
In speaking with GMA, Carmella commented that her pregnancy has been going well so far, with the exception of some morning sickness.
“I’ve been nauseous. I’ve been so tired, more tired than I’ve ever been in my life,” she said.
“But I’ve never been so happy to feel so awful. I’ve been great, I mean mentally. It’s kind of this weird space where I’m excited, but also just a little apprehensive because of the miscarriages,” Carmella admitted.
Last October, the WWE star revealed in an emotional Instagram post that she had a “devastating” ectopic pregnancy.
“I never thought something like this would happen to me, especially after suffering from an early miscarriage in September. Nothing can prepare you for this news after getting a positive pregnancy test,” she wrote in her caption.
Carmella said she was “cautiously optimistic” after her previous loss but was still “hoping for the best.”
“I spent 12 hours in the ER on Saturday when I started experiencing some sharp pains on my left side. After several tests and ultrasounds, I was given the devastating news that this was, in fact, an abnormal pregnancy,” Carmella wrote.
The WWE star said she was sharing her story so that others who might experience similar circumstances knew their “feelings and emotions are valid, there is NOTHING wrong with you and you are not alone.”
WWE SmackDown airs Fridays at 8/7c on FOX.