Ronda Rousey opened up about the heartbreaking way she found out about her father’s suicide.
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing
Speaking to Steven Bartlett (@Steven on Instagram and TikTok) on the Diary of a CEO podcast, UFC AND WWE icon Rousey opened up about her father Ronald’s suicide when she was just eight years old.
Rousey was informed of Ronald’s death by her mother AnnMaria De Mars, a former Judo world champion with a PhD in educational psychology.
On the incident, Rousey said: “My mum told me right after it happened.”
When asked how a mother tells their eight-year-old of such a tragedy, the 37-year-old said: “She’s a PhD in educational psychology so very technically I guess. She just like, laid the facts out - ‘This is what happened and this is what’s going on. We wanted to keep it from you.’
“She said my dad just wanted us to be kids and not have to worry about it.”
On the effect of her father’s death, Rousey added: “In the long run, it kind of gave me this feeling that even if everything is okay, everything could come crashing down at any moment.
“I guess I lost the feeling of security even when everything is going great.
“I feel like the ball is about to drop and that’s something I’ve had to work through until this day, and I feel like mostly I can feel pretty secure in my life and where I’m at, but it plagued me for a very long time.”
For the first six years of her life, Rousey struggled with speech due to apraxia, a neurological disorder which was attributed to her being born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.
Rousey explained how her condition led to her spending an enormous amount of one-on-one time with her father before his death.
She said: “I was a big-time daddy’s girl. Part of the speech therapy was that my sisters were talking for me.
“[My dad] had to work a little bit of a drive from the house. He would be at Devil’s Lake in the week and he’d come home and we’d come home on the weekend.
“The speech therapist said I should spend one-on-one time with a parent for us to speak so my sisters couldn’t translate my gibberish for me. So it would be me and him during the week and we’d come home on the weekend. It was my whole world.”
After his death, Rousey admitted she would make up stories that he had merely gone away on business.
“That was the only time he’d be gone away from the house for extended periods of time - because he would be on a business trip,” Ronda explained. “So that’s what I told myself to cope for a while, but then I found out later that my grandfather committed suicide as well. So he was a second-generation suicide.
“My sisters didn't ever want to talk about and no one really wanted to talk about it at all. It wasn’t the kind of thing we wanted to bring up.”
If you're experiencing distressing thoughts and feelings, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is there to support you. They're open from 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0800 58 58 58 and they also have a webchat service if you're not comfortable talking on the phone.
Featured Image Credit: Diary of a CEO via YouTubeTopics: Ronda Rousey, WWE, UFC