Kaitlyn Recalls Being An ‘Absolute Mess’ Following Her WWE Exit, Why She Left

Kaitlyn exited WWE back in 2014, and she recently spoke about the reasons for her departure and how she struggled for a time after she left. The former WWE star has been open about how she had a difficult time during her WWE run, which ultimately came to an end when she asked for her release.

The WWE alumna spoke with TMZ Inside the Ring for a new interview and spoke about her exit and how she felt she had to do so because she was having a hard time mentally and physically. She continued on to say that she struggled after she left as she tried to figure out who she was without WWE. You can see some highlights below:

On Exiting WWE:

“It’s interesting. Like, when I left — I had signed my second contract when I had the title in 2013, and I ended up asking for my release with still two years left on my contract. And it’s because I was struggling. I was folding under the pressure of show business, and adrenaline, and the emotional roller coaster. And also that lifestyle, especially the way it was back then was very difficult to have real relationships, like intimate relationships.”

“And I just — then, I was there from when I was 23 to when I was 27 — I didn’t have tools to process what I was going through, and I didn’t know how to talk about it. So essentially, it kind of built to this point in my life where I was struggling mentally, physically, I was gaining weight. Emotionally, I was a mess. And I knew that I couldn’t sustain that. That my life was reflecting to me like, ‘Hey, you need to figure this out. You need to make some changes.’ And I didn’t feel like I could do that while I was living that lifestyle. And I was also — I had lost a lot of confidence in myself.”

On Her Struggles After Her Exit:

“I didn’t want to get released, and so I left and I was a mess. I was an absolute mess. Didn’t have a plan. I knew I wanted to try to build some sort of business and kind of create a new identity for myself outside of the character of Kaitlyn. And it was so difficult, because I had this really deep feeling of like, ‘That was my opportunity, that was my chance. I’m never going to do anything as great as that again, and I blew it.’ Like, I could have had such a big impact, a much bigger impact. I didn’t know — and I struggled with this idea that I didn’t know who I was when I was there, so I didn’t have the ability to have a true message, right?

“And so for a long time I felt like a failure. Which is crazy to a lot of people, but it’s just how I felt. Like I felt like I could have done so much more with that opportunity and that spotlight on a global stage.”

On Finding Herself Afterward:

“So I went to through this really intense identity crisis. I had gotten married really fast. I’ve been married and divorced twice, and I got married to my first husband six months after — we got married the same time I launched my first business, Celestial Bodies. And I was just trying to create this whole new version of myself, and kind of like living in the shadow of my past. And I think that was a huge driver for me to be very successful in business, because I’m like, ‘I could do that.’ And now there’s no character, there’s no story lines, it’s just me. Let me try to tell my own story. And that’s hard when you don’t know who you are.

“So over the past 10 years has been a massive journey of like finding out who I am, but also asking myself, ‘What do I want for my life?’ What am I, what is my legacy? What does my life mean after I’m gone? Like, those deep philosophical, spiritual questions. And it’s led me on this quest of healing a lot of parts and aspects of myself that happened in childhood, which is true for all of us.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit TMZ Inside the Ropes with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.