AJ Lee Shares Details About The Start Of Her Relationship With CM Punk

On a recent episode of Stephanie McMahon’s podcast “What’s Your Story?,” AJ Lee discussed the unique beginnings of her relationship with her husband, CM Punk. The two were a romantic storyline on WWE TV in 2012 before they got together a couple of years later.

Lee and McMcahon spoke about how they both were involved in romantic storylines with their spouses before they started dating in real-life, which McMahon called a “dry run.” Here are the highlights:

On Their First Kiss:

“I mean, that’s sort of like — we sort of had a dry run as well. Like we dated probably two years after our storyline. But our first kiss is on television, and then I put him through a table. [laughs] Wrestling relationships. Yeah, I think we — early on, I think he like, respected me. To the point of like, in NXT he was one of the announcers. And when everyone else would like shit on us, he would be like, ‘But AJ is cool,’ yeah. Like, he was always putting me over. And I think he just knew I loved wrestling. So like, when we did the storyline together, I remember there was like a — he was supposed to say something really mean to me in one of the backstages that was going on live. And it was live, so he then he didn’t say the mean thing, and he like, hit on me or something. He wasn’t supposed to… It was not in the script but he took care of me. And I thought that was really, really nice.”

On the Relationship Evolving:

“I think we were like friends, first dating other people. And then once we were both single at the same time. And I think part of me was like, ‘Who knows? Let’s try this out.’ And then I blinked, and we were married in like two months or something. But I do remember like we were just friends, like zero romantic interest. We were talking like a restaurant one time, and he was saying something about like, he knows he’s never getting married. And a weird voice in my head went, ‘You’re gonna marry me.’ And I was like, ‘Bitch, shut — who was that?’ I was like, ‘What?’ And then I didn’t talk to him probably like, a year. I freaked out by that, yeah. Going, ‘no!’

“Because I never wanted to get married. I don’t believe in marriage. I still still would be like, ‘Don’t get married’ to people. It works for us. I don’t think it lasts forever, I think people grow. I think people grow at different times, I think it’s an institution. But for some reason, it was like, this is a teammate. This is the team, And so like, it works for us.”

On Being Private About Their Relationship:

“In my book I say — you know, I kind of talk about us getting together through the show, and then I say, ‘The rest of our story is just for us.’ Because I don’t know, I get scared that sometimes if you open the window, everyone’s like, ‘Okay, now I’m gonna sneak into the house,’ you know? I like to keep that — I give so much of myself when it comes to the mental health aspect? That it’s like, I want to protect the things that feel sacred. It’s not because I’m not proud of him. I’m so proud of him. But I don’t like post him him a lot. I don’t talk about him a lot. And he’s abit the opposite. He’s like the cutest heart on the sleeve. It’s very cute.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.