Former WWE Diva Joy Giovanni Says Women Were Seen As Undesirable If They Had Kids

Longtime wrestling fans might remember Joy Giovanni as a participant in the original WWE Divas Search in 2004, but she also was the only contestant who was a mother at the time. That was something Giovanni wanted to keep under wraps, but it was revealed during the competition by fellow Divas Search contestant Carmella DeCesare.

In an interview with "Ring the Belle," Giovanni explained why she didn't want to publicize that she was a mother prior to taking part in the competition.

"Back then, the industry was completely different,'" Giovanni said. "It was highly unacceptable [for a woman] to have children. It wasn't something that people would out loud tell you, just like other types of discrimination, but if an agent, if a manager, if production found out you had kids, you were undesirable. You wouldn't be at their beck and call, so they wouldn't want that."

After DeCesare spilled the beans, Giovanni was approached by Stephanie McMahon and WWE production about the matter. Giovanni said she was dropped by one of her agents because she had a child. The incident led to several of her fellow contestants siding with Giovanni against DeCesare and going after her during the infamous "Diss the Divas" segment on "Raw." According to Giovanni, there was a lot of realism to that segment.

"They gave us some loose guidelines," she said. "I will let you know, we did ask, 'Are we allowed to say anything at all, or is their a limit to our language?” And they told us to say whatever we wanted, which actually caused another big stir, because at the time, unbeknownst to us, the talent had started getting fined for using profanity because of network television. So we didn't know. They told us, 'Say whatever you want.'"

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Ring the Belle" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription