At WrestleMania, former UFC Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey stunned many spectators with her performance, and received unanimously positive reviews. Rousey made a triumphant comeback as a combat athlete, as her previous, and final, two UFC matches ended up in embarrassing defeat.
After losing to Holly Holm at UFC 193, Rousey even admitted having serious battles with depression, and even suicide.
“Honestly, my thought in the medical room, I was sitting in the corner and was like, ‘What am I anymore if I’m not this?'” said Rousey on an episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show in 2016. “Literally sitting there thinking about killing myself. In that exact second, I’m like, ‘I’m nothing. What do I do anymore? No one gives a s— about me anymore without this.'” (h/t ESPN)
Rousey recently discussed her father deciding to take his life to Tyler Henry of the show Hollywood Medium, which airs tonight.
“My dad, he had broke his back, and he happened to have a really rare blood disorder that kept him from healing, similar to hemophilia and it doesn’t allow you to clot your blood,” said Rousey. “And so, for years, he was getting platelet transfusions and trying to put rods in his back, everything. Eventually [the doctors] said you’re gonna be a paraplegic and then a quadriplegic and then you’re gonna die and there’s nothing we can do about it.
“And so, my dad decided to take matters into his own hands because he was in a huge amount of pain every day. He couldn’t work anymore, he felt like he was just a drag on the family and he was very much like a person who takes care of everyone. And he drove his car out and he put a hose in the exhaust. I was eight years old.”
Rousey shared more about her father’s suicide.
“I remember that what he passed, I would just try to tell myself that he was on a business trip and he’d be back. And that was my way to cope with it,” Rousey said. “But, I wouldn’t be crying unless he was awesome. He was the best.”
You can hear Rousey’s full account tonight at 9 p.m. EDT on E!
If any portion of these quotes are used, please be sure to credit E! Entertainment via Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
