John Cena offered a rare personal window into his life away from WWE during an appearance on TODAY’s “Making Space with Hoda Kotb,” addressing his retirement timing, his marriage to Shay Shariatzadeh, and the couple’s decision not to have children, according to Ringside News.
Asked by Hoda Kotb how he knew it was time to end his in-ring career, Cena explained that staying in WWE longer than he did would have been unfair to his wife. Cena has long been candid about the physical toll of a wrestling career, and his comments suggest that his decision to wind down his schedule was shaped as much by his home life as by his body. While Cena did not detail specific injuries or a timeline tied to the remark, the framing makes clear that his marriage played a direct role in how he approached the final stretch of his career.
The conversation also turned to the subject of children. Cena has been consistent in public for years about not envisioning kids in his future, but he told Kotb that the topic remains an “open topic” between him and Shariatzadeh rather than a closed door. That phrasing indicates the couple has not ruled out revisiting the decision, even though their stance up to this point has been firmly against starting a family.
Cena also got candid when Kotb asked him to describe his idea of a perfect day with nothing on the calendar. According to Ringside News, his answer centered heavily on his home life, and by the time the conversation reached how he would end such a day, Cena offered a notably personal and lighthearted detail about intimacy with his wife, saying he only needs “90 seconds” of that time together.
Taken together, the interview paints a picture of a wrestler who has fully shifted his public focus toward his marriage and personal life in the time since he stepped away from full-time competition. None of the three segments from the sit-down included new details about a return to the ring, a new contract status, or any upcoming WWE appearance, and Cena’s comments were strictly limited to his retirement reasoning, his relationship with Shariatzadeh, and the family-planning question the couple continues to weigh.
