AJ Lee's Perilous Journey To WWE From 'Rock Bottom'

Former WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee has always been extremely open about her mental health journey, often speaking about being diagnosed later in life with bipolar disorder after years of struggles. She's spoken about the importance of one's emotional well being as recently as her return promo in WWE, where she mentioned the importance of therapy to raucous support from the crowd. Following her return to the company, Lee sat down with Stephanie McMahon on her "What's Your Story?" podcast and talked about what made her so strong.

"I think one of the reasons I am someone who likes to take a chance is because I did start at complete rock bottom," she explained. "My story starts in New Jersey. I grew up with two very young parents who didn't have the tools, weren't given the tools to be adults and raise children. So we all sort of learned how to do life together."

Lee explained that she had to learn how to open a bank account on her own, and she and her two older siblings had to teach their parents how to do that kind of stuff, while her parents taught them how to steal cable. She said they were "adultified" very young, and the only way to break out of the cycle of poverty sometimes is to be exceptional.

"That's why a lot of athletes or a lot of actors have started in these hard beginnings because there really is no way out unless you are on television, in sports, something that is just such a wild leap," Lee said. "Sometimes that's the only way to break out of it. School was very expensive. I couldn't afford it. I tried."

Lee, who has also been open about the various times she was homeless with her family growing up, said she gained perspective about their situation way later in life. She said when you're young, some things are just second nature. She told McMahon the family figured out how to pay bills together, and she was even a janitor at just 14-years-old at a daycare to help. McMahon said that her father, former WWE chairman Vince McMahon, grew up in a trailer park and told her about only receiving 12 almonds and an orange as a Christmas gift every year.

"But you don't know. It's all relative, right?" Lee said. "Only through perspective and therapy do you go, 'Oh. That was kind of f***** up.' Maybe I shouldn't have had to survive these certain things or had responsibility on my shoulders at such a young age. But, when you're going through it, I think it just makes you tougher and I wouldn't have changed a single thing now, because it worked out for me. But yeah, it was not the easiest."

The former Divas Champion made her triumphant return to WWE after a decade away from the ring alongside her husband, CM Punk. The pair teamed up in Lee's first match back in a mixed tag match at Wrestlepalooza against Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch, and it looks as though Lee could be set for a huge feud against Lynch going in to WrestleMania season.

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