Ronda Rousey Reveals She's Suffered Two Devastating Miscarriages—"I Always Kind Of Felt Like That Was My Fault"

In a wide-ranging conversation with host Steven Bartlett, Rousy opened up about everything from her father's death when she was a young child, her journey of becoming of Judo master, her struggles with bulimia, her numerous career triumphs, as well as some devastating loses to promote her new memoir, titled Our Fight.

Bartlett covered Rousey's impressive ascent to being one of the biggest stars in MMA and a two-time world champion after she'd already become an Olympic judoka. She also became the first American woman to win a medal in judo when she claimed bronze at the 2008 Olympics.

However, her time as an Olympian caused some ongoing health issues, which Rousey says are the reason for her two infamous back-to-back knockout losses, one of which ended her career.

Rousey is known for being refreshingly blunt and occasionally stoic, but she broke down into tears when the discussion focused on the way her husband, Travis Browne, supported her through her losses and subsequent retirement in 2016.

“I literally had nothing left in me, I could barely get out of bed,” Rousey told Bartlett. “You could call it depression, but I didn’t see anyone and get diagnosed. [Travis] was amazing. He really helped drag me out of my own hole. I think he understood to an extent…He was incredibly naturally talented, but he hadn’t been pursuing a goal of athletic greatness since he was six like I had."

“I don’t think a lot of people understand that, but he was also still so supportive and there for me, he never got fed up with me," she added, wiping away tears. "Just being like that for over a year and having his incredible love and patience. He was just there for me all the time and would just hold me when I needed it, even if he didn’t understand why I was so sad."

“He’s the best thing that ever happened to me," she concluded. "I love him so much.”

The pair married in 2017 and share three children together—two sons from Browne's previous marriage, as well as a biological daughter named La'akea.

The subject eventually switched from Rousey's retirement from the UFC at age 29 to her career afterward, which involved an opportunity to star in the television show, "9-1-1." Her role involved many stunts despite Rousey being pregnant at the time, and she almost lost her finger in an accident.

"I found out I was pregnant right before the show started filming, and then my finger got chopped off from a boat door falling on it," she explained to Bartlett. "We went and got checked out, the baby seemed fine, but then I had a miscarriage a couple of weeks later, so I always kind of felt like that was my fault. I wanted to keep doing dangerous stuff while I was pregnant because I thought that made me cool," she added.

"Then I was just depressed and drinking and smoking and not taking care of myself, then I got pregnant right away again, and then we never even saw a heartbeat that time. But I wasn't expecting anything more because I just wasn't taking care of myself during that time."

"And then I went through IVF, four cycles of IVF to be able to get eight embryos because we wanted to have like three or four kids. And the first one that we used actually worked. That's, you know, La'akea, my daughter now. But yeah, we're in the process of doing it right now, and I just got news yesterday that our first cycle didn't work," Rousey shared, breaking down.

"It's tough," she said tearfully. "Anyone going through it is tough, and like people just don't talk about it. But, you know, it's hard because you have so much hope every time. And yeah, I don't know. I'll just have to wait till the end of this book tour to try again. But I was really hoping to be pregnant today," Rousey added, wiping away tears. "But, you know, it's the kind of thing that like nobody talks about. So, and so do so many women think they're going through it alone. But it's really, really common. But it's just really hard when things don't work out."

Bartlett expressed his sympathy and shared that he and his girlfriend are also trying to have children.

"I think like, you know, no one wants to burden anybody else with what they're going through," Rousey responded. "But a lot of times it's not, you're not burdening other people. You're, you know, I don't know if it's like "camaraderie," but you're offering something to other people who are going through the same thing. And a lot of times, as a woman, you can feel like it's your fault. But, you know, your peak productive years are your peak athletic years. So, I decided to use those on my career. And, you know, thankfully I was able to get a bunch of embryos when I was young, and hopefully, you know, we'll be able to still have a couple more kids."

"I've got a lot more than most, than a lot of people that have been through it," she added.

Bartlett also asked what the IVF process has been like.

"It's been a grind," Rousey responded. "And it's really hard on you mentally and physically your body. Like last cycle, I wasn't allowed to work out or anything for weeks on end. I was just not recognizable physically and just mentally so worn out. You're on all these kinds of hormones and you're going through this emotional roller coaster and you can't really talk about it, you know? And sometimes people who are like psychotic trolls that try and follow me around online and break me about these kinds of things."

"It's something you have to live with being a public figure, but you're not supposed to say anything about it because "how dare you not be grateful for your good fortune," but man, it sucks when you're going through it and you feel like, you know, the world is also still looking over your shoulder and you're not living up to your own expectations. I don't know if there's a feminine word for emasculating, but is, uh, you know..."effeminating" when it feels like you can't naturally have a baby," she added.

"It's tough because as a woman, you have to choose, am I going to go for a career during my peak years, or am I going to go for kids? And so luckily, you know, science makes it so you can have both, but it doesn't make it easy."

Many women expressed empathy for Rousey's struggle to choose between prioritizing her fertility or her career as a professional athlete, as well as her transparency about the limitations and drawbacks of IVF, especially as it becomes increasingly popular.

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