Charlotte Flair may have spent years playing WWE royalty on television, but behind the robe, championships and larger-than-life persona, she was fighting a much uglier battle with herself.
Flair opened up during Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story? podcast about the pressure she put on herself for years, revealing that she spent three years in counseling through WWE while trying to deal with guilt, perfectionism and the feeling that she constantly had to prove herself.
The conversation turned serious when McMahon asked Flair whether she had ever seen a therapist. Charlotte didn’t dance around it, revealing that WWE’s counseling resources became a major part of her life for several years.
“Oh yes. So WWE offers, which I’m sure you know, counseling. So I was with Dr. Jada, everyone loves Dr. Jada, for three years. And then, really, when I met Scarlett and then also besides meeting Scarlett and her family, yes, Scarlett played a huge role in just perspective, but just practicing gratitude daily.”
Flair said she eventually started forcing herself to stop obsessing over everything that was wrong and actually acknowledge what she had going right. That meant making gratitude part of her routine instead of waking up every day ready to pick herself apart. That change also meant Charlotte had to stop swallowing things she didn’t like just to avoid rocking the boat.
“Like what am I grateful for? Say it out loud in the morning, saying at night, and then constantly reminding yourself, you are worthy, you are enough, you are beautiful. That’s why I put those daily reminders.”
“You don’t have to accept things you don’t like just to keep the peace. Do what makes you happy.”
But the conversation got even more personal when Flair started talking about how she sees herself physically. For someone who has spent more than a decade walking onto WWE television looking like she was carved out of a fitness magazine, Charlotte admitted the image in her own head hasn’t always matched what everyone else sees. Flair said she believes she has dealt with body dysmorphia and described the constant habit of women tearing themselves apart over their appearance.
“I think I’ve dealt with body dysmorphia or body… I think dysmorphia’s—But I don’t want to say like, ‘Oh, mine was like…’ We as women pick ourselves apart because we were in front of the camera.”
McMahon pointed out that the pressure isn’t just limited to people working on television anymore. Thanks to social media, practically everybody has a camera pointed at them, and Flair immediately zeroed in on just how brutal that can be for younger people. She said she couldn’t imagine going through high school with Instagram hanging over every photo, like and follow.
“Yeah. Social media. Social media. Yeah. Or like the comparison game. Oh yeah. I mean, I can’t imagine being in high school and having Instagram. And valuing my self-worth based on a like or a follow. So hard. Hard.”
And Charlotte isn’t pretending she has magically beaten the social media monster either. Flair admitted she still catches herself mindlessly scrolling before realizing she needs to shut the whole thing down and get back into the real world.
“I feel sometimes when I’m attached to my phone, I’m like, ‘Okay, I have been scrolling aimlessly for like, put the phone down.’”
That’s a pretty wild contrast from the Charlotte Flair fans watched for years — draped in robes, stacking championships and carrying herself like nobody in the building belonged in the same conversation. Behind all of that, Flair was apparently spending plenty of time questioning whether she was enough in the first place.
These days, Charlotte seems far less interested in selling everybody the perfect version of herself. After three years of counseling, years of picking apart her appearance and a lifetime of carrying the Flair name, she’s finally letting fans see the messier side behind “The Queen” — and that might end up being the version people connect with the most.
What do you make of Charlotte Flair revealing her three years of WWE counseling and struggles with body dysmorphia? Do you think fans are seeing a completely different side of her now? Drop your thoughts and leave your feedback in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
