WWE’s Becky Lynch Opens Up About Post-Weaning Depression: 'I Was in a Really Bad Spot' (Exclusive)
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The WWE star says she had a "rough" time after she stopped breastfeeding earlier this year
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WWE’s Becky Lynch is opening up for the first time about her experience with postpartum depression and how she’s coped in recent months after she experienced it around WrestleMania 39 this past April.
In an exclusive clip shared with PEOPLE, the six-time WWE women’s world champion tells Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick on an upcoming episode of the After the Bell podcast that she initially thought she escaped postpartum depression in the years after her daughter Roux was born in December 2020.
But Lynch, 36, says around the time of her WrestleMania match in April, she realized she was “on edge” and had been experiencing post-weaning depression since Roux stopped breastfeeding.
“And then it kind of got really, really dark for a few months and I was in a really bad spot,” Lynch says, choking up at points during the interview, which is set to be released later Friday morning.
“It was kind of one of those things where you're trying to pull yourself out of it, because you know mentally, ‘God, I’ve got a great life. I’ve got a great husband. I’ve got a great baby, and I’m doing this thing at the highest level that I love.’ But no reasoning with yourself was able to overcome that level of depression,” she says.
“I didn't know you could get post-weaning depression,” Lynch says. “So, not even knowing that that was a thing I think also hurt me because, why am I feeling like this? Why am I acting like this? And [I was] not realizing that this is actually a common thing that happens and there are ways you can treat it. And once you figure out the cause of all of that, then you're off to the races and then you're back and then you can appreciate everything. But yeah, for a few months there, it was rough.”
Lynch says another mother in WWE recognized what she was going through and pulled her aside to help. “Thankfully, somebody that we all know — I won’t put her on the spot — she told me what was happening because it had happened to her,” Lynch says. “She gave me some tips, and I kind of kept thinking it was gonna pass, ‘it was gonna pass, it was gonna pass,’ and then it really wasn’t passing.”
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Soon after WrestleMania, Lynch injured her foot and needed four weeks off television to recover.
“It was such a blessing,” she says. “I really had to face everything that I was going through because when you go, go, go, you can be so distracted but you realize that you’re getting quite explosive, that you just kind of get on with it. So, I really had to face it and learn how to deal with it.”
Lynch says she tried meditation, supplements, and finally acupuncture before she was able to find what worked for her. She returned to WWE television in late May and has since continued touring with the professional wrestling promotion.
The WWE star, whose real name is Rebecca Quin Lopez, is regarded by the company as one of its greatest wrestlers of all-time and was part of the first women’s main event match at WrestleMania in 2019 when she defeated UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey and 14-time world champion Charlotte Flair.
Lynch and Rollins, whose real name is Colby Lopez, announced exclusively to PEOPLE that they were expecting their first child together back in May 2020. "I've always, always wanted kids," Lynch told PEOPLE at the time. "I'm just so career-focused that it became one of those things that, when you're chasing a dream for so long, I always wondered, 'Am I going to get around to it? Is it going to happen for me?' "
The WWE star said she was “nervous” but “so excited” to become a mother. "Now you have this whole other person that you have to look after and grow, and make sure that you're doing everything that you possibly can to make sure that they are the healthiest and the safest that they can be," Lynch said. "But we're just so, so excited.”
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