Itās common knowledge that 2024 was a lost year for Charlotte Flair, as the WWE star spent all of the year on the shelf recovering from a torn knee. What many may not know, however, is that rehab and recovery wasnāt the only thing the former WWE Womenās Champion had to endure, and was instead just part of a year that left Charlotteās personal and professional life in disarray.
In her āPlayers Tribuneā article, Charlotte described how great everything was prior to her injury, stating she was having some of the most fun of her career, and was preparing for her then husband Andradeās return to WWE after several years in AEW. Her injury would be the first blow to Charlotteās psyche, despite the support she received from the locker room and WWE, and it only got worse a few months later when, while in rehab, she took the first attempts towards trying to start a family.
āIn February, I started my fertility journey,ā Charlotte said. āThatās a complicated topicā¦ā¦and honestly itās a topic that society doesnāt make very easy to talk about. But Iām going to try to be open about it here, as much as I can, because itās not something Iām ashamed of. Iām not ashamed to say that I feel the pressure of being a female athlete who has 1) a biological clock (one Iām constantly reminded of), and 2) a āhappy endingā in mind that involves love, and marriage, and a family of my own. Iām also not ashamed to say I went through four rounds (five tries) of fertility last year, with no luck. And Iām not ashamed to say that that process gutted me, and spiritually exhausted me.ā
Charlotte Details Rock Bottom Moment
Already dealing with a long recovery from injury and her struggles with fertility treatment, Charlotte and Andradeās marriage also became strained as 2024 went along. But it wasnāt until that summer when all three issues collided into one another, and unfortunately left Charlotte feeling as though she was at an all-time low.
āI think my rock bottom moment was probably sometime last summer, when I was flying around the country for second opinions (Chicago, San Francisco, New York, I went everywhere),ā Charlotte said. āAround this same time, I developed tendinitis in my knee from going too hard in my rehab, which of course set my rehab back more. And then also around this same time, I went from trying to save my marriage to facing the fact that I was getting a third divorce.
āAnd itās like each thing just fed into the other. Like: I couldnāt do jumping exercises because of my fertilityā¦but those are exactly the exercises I needed to rehab my knee. Or: It felt like the stress from my fertility had harmed my marriageā¦but then it felt like the stress from my divorce was now harming my fertility. It was like for an entire year, I just couldnāt win. I was trying so damn hard, at all these thingsā¦but itās like the harder I tried, the worse everything got.ā
Charlotte Details Why She Wrote Playerās Tribune Article
A year later, Charlotteās situation has largely improved. She returned healthy this past January, winning the Womenās Royal Rumble match, though her WWE Womenās Title feud with Tiffany Stratton heading into WrestleMania received mixed reviews. Sheās also set to compete on the upcoming all-womenās WWE Evolution PLE, teaming with Alexa Bliss in a four-way match for the WWE Womenās Tag Team Championships. But none of that is why she told her story, which Charlotte explains is something she felt she needed to do for herself, even if some of her detractors would take glee in her suffering.
āIām sure some people will read this and have jokes about it and thatās fine,ā Charlotte siad. āI know how some people see meā¦and I know how mean they can be about what they think they know about my life. But Iām not writing this for those peopleā¦..this isnāt for my haters. Honestly, this isnāt even for my fans. This is for myself.
āThis is for the version of me thatās spent so much of my personal life needing to be liked, and so much of my romantic life wanting to be loved, and so much of my professional life trying to be hatedā¦that I think Iāve lost my own compass sometimes in the middle of all of that. So I guess Iām working on finding it again. And I think putting this out thereā¦owning whatās happened to meā¦is a pretty good start.ā