{"id":140577,"date":"2023-08-27T07:20:06","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T07:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/?p=140577"},"modified":"2023-08-27T07:20:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T07:20:06","slug":"exclusive-ex-wwe-star-paige-opens-up-about-overcoming-drug-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity-hub.com\/lifestyle\/exclusive-ex-wwe-star-paige-opens-up-about-overcoming-drug-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Ex-WWE star Paige opens up about overcoming drug addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
Former WWE star Paige has opened up about how she overcame a brutal drug addiction, a career-ending injury, and a sex tape leak that drove her to the brink of suicide in order to stage a triumphant return to the sport that she once thought she had been cast out of forever.<\/p>\n
Saraya Bevis, 31, who is best known by her ring name, Paige, started wrestling when she was only 13 and is currently working with WWE’s rival company All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in a team known as The Outcasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, most wrestling fans know her best for her stint in WWE, which she joined in\u00a02011, before enjoying a five-year streak of dominating stardom – winning a slew of competitions, breaking numerous records, and becoming one of the most well-known wrestling stars on the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n But in 2016, Paige, who is originally from the UK, took a dark turn and went on a downward spiral after she developed severe substance abuse issues – which resulted in her being suspended from the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n WWE star Paige has opened up about how she overcame a brutal drug addiction, a career-ending injury, and a sex tape leak that drove her to the brink of suicide<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Saraya Bevis, 31, who is best known as her ring name, Paige, joined WWE in 2011, and for five years she completely dominated the sport. She’s seen in 2016<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But in 2016, Paige (seen in 2016), who hails from the UK, took a dark turn and went on a downward spiral after she developed severe substance abuse issues<\/p>\n Things only got worse in early 2017 when her sex tape leaked – a moment that she later said caused her to plummet into a deep depression and develop a series of physical ailments like anorexia and alopecia.<\/p>\n In September 2017, however, she returned to WWE, but three months later –\u00a0she suffered from a horrifying neck injury that left many believing she would never return to the ring.<\/span><\/p>\n But the determined star did not give up, and after a five-year hiatus,\u00a0Paige shocked the world when she announced that she had signed with\u00a0All Elite Wrestling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She officially returned to the ring in November 2022, and has been unstoppable ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n Paige is now five years sober, and she reflected on her rollercoaster-ride journey exclusively to DailyMail.com.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the athlete,\u00a0it was her boyfriend, musician\u00a0Ronnie Radke, who inspired her to finally turn her life around after they started dating in 2018.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She explained that while she had already stopped doing drugs when they met, she was still drinking heavily.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ‘My boyfriend, he has such great willpower, like really, really great willpower’ she gushed to DailyMail.com.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paige is now five years sober, and she reflected on her rollercoaster-ride journey exclusively to DailyMail.com. She’s seen wrestling back in 2016<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the athlete, it was her boyfriend, musician Ronnie Radke, who inspired her to finally turn her life around after they started dating in 2018<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She said she and Ronnie – who is also a recovering addict – ‘don’t put themselves’ in ‘situations’ where they’ll be tempted to go back to their old ways<\/p>\n ‘He went through drug addiction [but stopped] 10 years ago. He was [still] drinking though when we first met.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘After I first returned to the WWE I stopped doing drugs completely, but I was still having drinks [too] and it’s a problem for me to drink.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘But [my boyfriend] had the idea of, “We should just cut this completely out,” because we were waking up at 12 or 2 in the afternoon, and kind of wasting our days and nights and just feeling like s**t constantly. Our health wasn’t the best.’<\/span><\/p>\n Paige – whose story inspired the 2019 movie Fighting With My Family, which starred Florence Pugh and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – explained that she ‘completely quit’ all alcohol ‘cold turkey’ after that. She also stopped vaping.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ‘He was like, “This is the best way to do it.” And so, we did. We just stopped one day and then never looked back,’ she continued.<\/span><\/p>\n She said she and\u00a0Ronnie ‘don’t put themselves’ in ‘situations’ where they’ll be tempted to go back to their old ways.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘I want people to know that once you stop, I promise you there is a point in it where you’re just like, “I don’t need this anymore,”‘ she added.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘You stop needing it and you get more comfortable, you start learning to develop this confidence.’<\/span><\/p>\n Paige added that since she got clean she’s become a ‘homebody,’ explaining that when she’s not working she loves to just ‘chill with her animals.’<\/span><\/p>\n The sports star said it felt like ‘everyone’ was rooting against her during her low point, but that she was ‘determined’ to prove those who doubted her wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘Everyone thought I was a mess and that I couldn’t come out of my addictions and all that kind of stuff. And I did,’ she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She called those years of her life ‘rock bottom,’ but said she’s not ashamed of what she went through.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paige’s story inspired the 2019 movie Fighting With My Family, which starred Florence Pugh. Florence is seen in the film<\/p>\n <\/p>\n She called those years of her life ‘rock bottom,’ but said she’s not ashamed of what she went through. She’s seen with Florence and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson at the movie premiere\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ‘You don’t have to be perfect to be a role model. The thing that makes you a role model is your imperfections,’ she explained<\/p>\n ‘You don’t have to be perfect to be a role model. The thing that makes you a role model is your imperfections,’ she explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ‘The fact that I went through everything, I’m so thankful that I went through it and not somebody else because I came out extremely strong and someone else might not have been able to get through that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ‘I don’t regret my decisions at all because now, I can use it as a tool to help so many people, and I hope I continue to do that even seven, eight years from now.’\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, she vowed that she’s feeling ‘100 per cent’ in both her mind and her body, and vowed that she’s ‘her best self right now.’<\/span><\/p>\n She’s currently gearing up to compete at AEW’s All In event at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Paige previously spoke about her sex tape leaking on\u00a0Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast and she admitted that she considered ending her life after it was released to the world.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘When it came out I barricaded myself in the house for a couple of months. I was so sad to the point I was contemplating suicide,’ she said.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘That scarred me. People invading my privacy, to the point where sometimes I don’t want to go out.<\/span><\/p>\n She also said her health deteriorated so much following the leak that she once ‘collapsed’ from ‘exhaustion’ and needed to be hospitalized.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ‘I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping, I lost all my hair. I literally have no hair because my hair fell out because I was so stressed,’ she revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n ‘It just broke my heart. I was like, “Why would someone want to do that to someone?”‘<\/span><\/p>\n A second video that showed her participating in a sex act with three men came out in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n