Artem Chigvintsev and Niki Garcia.
Roden Eckenroth/Getty ImagesArtem Chigvintsev is all smiles with 4-year-old son Matteo in his first Instagram post since Nikki Garcia separation.
Chigvintsev, 42, shared four black-and-white photos with his son on Sunday, December 22. In the pictures, the father-son pair lie down, with two images showing them both laughing with their mouths wide open. Mateo embraces Chigvintsev, crushing their faces into each other, in a third image.
The former Dancing with the stars pro shares Mateo with his ex-wife Garcia, 41.
Chigvintsev and Garcia began dating in 2019, two years after they raced together on time DWTS season 25. The former couple welcomed Matteo in 2020. and married in 2022.
Nikki Garcia shared new details about her and estranged husband Artem Chigvintsev’s domestic violence incident in a restraining order filing. In the document, which was filed and approved by a judge on Monday, September 30, Garcia, 40, claims that Chigvintsev, 42, grabbed her several times and pushed her to the ground, while their son Mateo (…)
Last August, shortly after Chigvintsev and Garcia celebrated their second wedding anniversary, the professional dancer was arrested for domestic battery and charged with domestic violence after an apparent quarrel with his then wife. (Charges against him were dropped in September after a “thorough” investigation, Napa County District Attorney Alison Haley shared at the time.)
Both Chigvintsev and Garcia subsequently filed for divorce following the incident with the former WWE Diva claiming full custody of Mateo and Chigvintsev with a request for joint custody. Both applied restraining orders against each otherwhich were subsequently dropped.
Us Weekly confirmed this in November their divorce was settled.
“Nikki and Artem have settled their divorce and will not be going to court,” Garcia’s rep said in a statement. “Both parties decided to lift the domestic violence restraining orders against each other in an effort to move on with their lives and effectively parent their son.”
Garcia broke his silence on the divorce on a December episode of her podcast, “The Nikki & Brie Show,” which she co-hosts with twin sister Brie Garcia.
“I was heartbroken,” Garcia told listeners. “You dream of having this family and you have this incredible love, and things just go the other way. You go from a great love story to a terrible one.”
Artem Chigvintsev’s lawyer claims he was not the “primary aggressor” in the recent domestic violence incident. “We can now focus on negotiating a 50/50 shared custody schedule. Fortunately, Artem has been able to spend time with Mateo almost every day since the accident on 08/29/2024,” Chigvintsev’s lawyer Ilona Antonyan said in a statement to us (…)
Garcia further explained her silence by noting that she wanted to “cut the relationship” to put Mateo’s needs first.
“I am a mother and my son’s protection and privacy is of the utmost importance,” she said. “I was going to do whatever it took, the bottom line, and then I just needed a healing place to face the trauma.”
She said she was dealing with divorce was a “struggle” over the past few months.
“I know that being a public figure, I have to say a little bit about it, right?” Garcia noted. “After that I don’t ever want to talk about it again because I really want privacy for Matteo.” That was the most important part.”
