Paige Opens Up About Tumultuous Past In WWE, Says Her Dad Saved Her Life

After returning to WWE at WrestleMania 42 and winning the Women's Tag Team Championship, Paige has addressed the last time she was wrestling for the company and the tumultuous time she endured in her personal life.

Paige sat down with Stephanie McMahon for "What's Your Story?" and got onto her personal struggles during her first run – one that had saw her become champion at just 21 years old. In 2016, she was suspended twice for Wellness Policy violations, with it later being confirmed by WWE that she had tested positive for an illegal substance. 

She also had surgery to address a neck issue that year, and was in the beginning of her ill-fated engagement to Alberto Del Rio/El Patron, and private explicit videos of her from when she was 19 years old were leaked.

"You know, I got into a bit of trouble when I was younger," she looked back. "You know, like, started drinking and partying with the wrong people. Then I ended up having a certain relationship that wasn't the healthiest. I kind of relied on the drugs when it comes to that too. Then on top of that, these tapes get released from when I'm 19 years old."

Paige said she would never have wished that on anyone, feeling so humiliated and devastated. She said it was still so hard to talk about in a serious setting, even if she finds humor behind the scenes. 

"It's a defense mechanism, a survival tactic," McMahon reassured her.

"Yeah, exactly," Paige continued. "I just remember when they got released, I was on drugs in a certain relationship, and then there was my neck as well. It was my neck surgery, and so I wasn't at work." 

Paige continued to say that, while WWE was constant in offering support and asking her to open up about her situation, she was adamant on keeping it to herself. 

"I was like, 'I'm fine, I'm fine.' And you guys even flew me out to Connecticut and sat down with me and was just like, 'You have to talk to us. You have to let us help you.' I'm like, 'I'm fine.' ... You did this whole medical checkup on me. 'Cause I got really skinny. I had mats in my hair, and I remember I had to put my arms on the wall so they could see like the bones in my back and stuff just to see. They were like, 'We want to help you but we can't unless you want us to.' And I'm just like, 'I'm fine,'" she explained. 

Paige said that it had become a bit of a jokingly serious theme among her friends, Amy Lee and Renee Paquette specifically, where they would ask one another: "'Which one of us is gonna have to rescue her from the trunk of a car.'"

McMahon described that as "ribbing on the square," a term used in wrestling to wrap legitimate comments/concerns around a veil of worked or jokingly framed words. 

"Yeah, exactly," Paige agreed, going into what Paquette had said after a 2017 altercation with El Patron. 

"Renee came and saw me, and she said after the fight, she was like, 'I've never felt such an intense weird feeling being around you. 'Cause usually it's very comfortable... I was just so worried.' I cut out all my family, I cut out all my friends, I cut out you guys. 'Cause I was convinced you guys hated me. I was convinced no one wanted me around. I was convinced I was alone."

Paige said that then the videos were leaked, and that pushed her over the edge. She said she left her home and ran as far as she could, and came to the decision to call her father with the idea that if he could not accept it, then there was truly no way forward.

"I'm sick. I'm like, 'Oh my gosh. People can see me,' and made mistakes in these videos and stuff I would never do. It's my private life. And I was young, I was like 19 years old," she said. "I was like, 'If my dad doesn't accept me for this, I'm gonna kill myself.' That was it, you know, I was like, 'I can't be here anymore.'"

Paige reasoned that she and her father share a close bond and he is her life, so if he couldn't accept the videos being out there then she had come to terms with suicide. 

"I was ready to do it. I was done," she said. "And so... I called him. He was f***ing fantastic. He goes to me, 'It's alright princess.' He was like, 'Everyone has a sex life. Yours just happened to be on the internet.' And he goes, 'You know what, you could be famous like Kim Kardashian. It could work in your favor.'"

Paige laughed and said she asked "How the f*** do you know Kim Kardsahian?" before saying he had saved her life that day, at the lowest point she had ever been in her life. She said she never thought she'd ever reach the point of wanting or considering harming herself, but she had, and it was her father who brought her back from it.