Charlotte Flair is on top of the world right now. Her father Ric is in much better health and has an ESPN documentary coming out next month. She’s back on Smackdown, and already had a title match with Natalya at Hell in a Cell. She also made Sports Illustrated’s “Fittest 50” list, and she’s going to be in Psych: The Movie (yes really).
She also has an autobiography out, co-authored with Ric Flair, called Second Nature. The release of that book has led to Charlotte going public with difficult details from her past that she’d never previously discussed publicly. Chief among these is the domestic abuse she endured from her first husband, Riki Johnson. Yesterday she acknowledged that part of her past, and stood up for other survivors, in an Instagram post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BapPLPbA_jD/
#PutTheNailInIt is a campaign against domestic violence that Mia Yim, another wrestler who’s also a survivor, has been a part of since 2016. Charlotte’s story first became public on September 1, when the Charlotte Observer published excerpts from Second Nature:
In a fair amount of detail, she chronicles her ugly relationship with Riki Johnson, her first husband. She gave up a Division I volleyball scholarship and left Appalachian State after her sophomore year to live with Johnson, who at the time was a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Riki was Jekyll and Hyde,” she writes. “If he was happy, things were great; he was the man of my dreams. If he was angry, everyone knew it, and it would be taken out on someone or something.” Charlotte shares her side of the much-publicized 2008 altercation in Chapel Hill, and alleges there were multiple instances in which arguments led to him becoming physically violent with her. In one, “Riki started swinging at me like we were in a street fight. Over his screams, I could hear his fists hit my arms. I managed to block most of the punches, but one shot got me in the ribs. I began to gasp for air, but he didn’t stop.” In another, “Riki punched me right in the head.” “I think about that girl now, and it brings tears to my eyes. How did I get there? Why was this going on? Why wasn’t I strong enough, brave enough, to end this?”
As a performer known for her physical strength as well as her strong will, Charlotte Flair’s candor about the abuse she survived illustrates the truth that this can happen to anyone, and in fact does happen to one in four women, as well as one in seven men. Charlotte and Mia Yim are doing important and inspiring work just by telling their stories. To learn more about the Put The Nail In It campaign, visit their web site.
