Natalya has overcome a lot of ups and downs throughout her career thus far. She recently suffered a loss to Ronda Rousey on SmackDown but has a chance to get back into the title picture this week in a match with new SmackDown Women’s Champion Liv Morgan. While speaking on the After The Bell with Corey Graves podcast, Natalya revealed that wrestling helped her overcome her eating disorder after the death of her uncle, Owen Hart.
Natalya on her past struggles with an eating disorder: “My eating disorder after my uncle passed away — it was a very tragic time for our family after our uncle, Owen [Hart], passed away. After Owen passed away, like, our family just went through this really traumatic time, and for me, it was about like, gaining control. I was trying in some way in my life to gain control and so like, that summer, I had lost like 40 pounds in two months and it was really extreme. And I went through this struggle for about three years. The turning point for me was wrestling. It was when I decided I wanted to start wrestling that I realized that I couldn’t be that skinny. Like, I was wearing kids clothes. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bump … I remember everything really hurt because I had no meat on me. I was just like, emaciated. So, I realized, ‘I love this wrestling thing. I want to do this wrestling thing, I feel this, but I can’t do it if I’m anorexic. Like, I just can’t do it, my body can’t sustain it’. So it was like, wrestling was really what I feel like change my life, changed my career, and kind of saved me.”
Natalya also spoke about how her father, Jim Neidhart’s failures motivated her to succeed in pro wrestling. The Queen of Hearts has been a staple in the women’s division and one of the last remaining talents of the Diva’s era still competing today. She recently got attention for not selling Liv Morgan’s finishing move during a WWE house show match this past weekend.
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