AJ Lee Struggled Silently With Mental Health Issues During Her First WWE Run

Over the last decade, AJ Lee has become a vocal advocate for mental health awareness, having covered her own struggles in her 2017 memoir, "Crazy Is My Superpower." However, during her initial run in WWE from 2009 to 2015, Lee preferred not to discuss mental health at all. The wrestler reflected on that time in her life during an appearance on "What's Your Story? With Steph McMahon."

"I was never open with people about my mental health, so nobody knew why I was so quiet," Lee said. "I live with bipolar disorder. It's a piece of me, it's not all of me, but it is something that runs in my family, and we didn't know it – that my mother was struggling with it. So that answered a lot of questions [about] her behavior [when I was] growing up, and why things were the way they were. ... It is often triggered and worsened by high-pressure situations, high stress."

Lee and McMahon laughed about how that relates to the industry they both work in, which regularly puts those involved into high stakes situations. At the same time Lee was breaking into wrestling and getting signed by WWE, she was still in the learning stages of her bipolar diagnosis, having been diagnosed just two years before she joined the promotion.

"I thought it could cost me my job if people found out about it, so I never told anyone," Lee continued. "I remember one person had sort of an inkling; that was Kaitlyn. ... We were going to the gym or something and I was like, 'I can't leave the car.' And I just sat in the car and cried while she went [in] to the gym and worked out."

Unsurprisingly, bottling up her feelings didn't do Lee much good, and the stress began to make her bipolar disorder harder to deal with. It wasn't until she left WWE that Lee began to figure out how to best manage her mental health, and she feels she's in a better place for her 2025 WWE return.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "What's Your Story? With Steph McMahon" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.