EXCLUSIVE: ‘Everyone thought I couldn’t do it. But I did.’ Former WWE star Paige lays bare brutal years-long struggle to overcome drug addiction, career-ending injury, and sex tape leak that left her on the brink of suicide

Former WWE star Paige has shared how she overcame a brutal drug addiction, a career-ending injury and a sex tape leak that brought her to the brink of suicide to make a triumphant return to the sport she once thought that she had. was cast away forever.

Saraya Bevis, 31, who is best known by her ring name Paige, started wrestling when she was just 13 and currently teams up with WWE’s rival company All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on a team known as The Outcasts.

However, most wrestling fans know her best for her stint in WWE, which she competed in 2011, before he enjoyed five years of dominating fame: winning a slew of competitions, breaking countless records and becoming one of the best-known wrestling stars in the world.

But in 2016, Paige, who is originally from Britain, took a dark turn and went into a tailspin after she developed serious substance abuse issues – which led to her being suspended from the organization.

Things only got worse in early 2017 when her sex tape was leaked — a moment she later said she slipped into a deep depression and developed a series of physical ailments such as anorexia and alopecia.

However, in September 2017, she returned to WWE, but three months later – she suffered a horrific neck injury that led many to believe she would never return to the ring.

But the determined star didn’t give up, and after a five-year hiatus, Paige shocked the world when she announced she had signed with All Elite Wrestling.

She officially returned to the ring in November 2022 and has been unstoppable ever since.

Paige has been sober for five years now and she exclusively reflected on her roller coaster journey on DailyMail.com.

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.

She explained that although she had already given up drugs when they met, she still drank heavily.

“My friend, he has such great willpower, a lot of willpower,” she told DailyMail.com.

“He had a drug addiction ten years ago (but has stopped). He was (still) drinking when we first met.

“After I first came back to the WWE, I stopped using drugs completely, but I still drank (too) and it’s a problem for me to drink.

“But[my friend]was like, ‘We should just scrap this altogether,’ because we woke up at 12 or 2 p.m. and sort of wasted our days and nights and just felt like crap. continual. Our health was not the best.’

Paige — whose story inspired the 2019 movie Fighting With My Family, starring Florence Pugh and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — explained that she “completely stopped” all alcohol after that. She has also stopped vaping.

He said, ‘This is the best way to do it. And we did. We just stopped one day and never looked back,” she continued.

She said that she and Ronnie “don’t put themselves in ‘situations’ where they are tempted to go back to their old ways.

“I want people to know that once you stop, I promise you there will come a point where you think, ‘I don’t need this anymore,'” she added.

“You don’t need it anymore and you feel more comfortable. You start to learn to develop this confidence.”

Paige added that she’s become a “homebody” since she got clean, explaining that when she’s not working, she loves to just “chill with her animals.”

The sports star said it felt like “everyone” was against her during her rock bottom, but she was “determined” to prove her wrong to those who doubted it.

“Everyone thought I was a mess and couldn’t get out of my addictions and things like that. And I did,” she said.

She called those years of her life “the low point,” but said she was not ashamed of what she went through.

You don’t have to be perfect to be a role model. What makes you a role model is your imperfections,” she explained.

“The fact that I went through it all, I’m so thankful that I went through it and not someone else because I came out extremely strong and someone else might not have been able to get through that.

“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 will continue to do so in seven, eight years.”

Now she’s pledged that she feels “100 percent” both in her mind and body, and that she’s “her best self right now.”

She is currently preparing to compete in AEW’s All In event at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

Paige previously spoke about leaking her sex tape to Lilian Garcia In search of glory podcast and she admitted that she considered ending her life after it was released to the world.

“When it came out, I barricaded myself in the house for a few months. I was so sad that I contemplated suicide,” she said.

‘That drew me. People who violate my privacy, to the point where sometimes I don’t want to go out.

She also said her health deteriorated so much after the leak that she once “collapsed” from “exhaustion” and had to be hospitalized.

“I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I lost all my hair. I literally have no hair because my hair fell out because I was so stressed,” she revealed.

“It just broke my heart. I thought, “Why would anyone want to do that to anyone?”

A second video of her participating in a sex act with three men appeared in 2018.