Maryse Mizanin Prioritizes Motherhood Over WWE Return
Former WWE Divas Champion and reality television star Maryse Mizanin has spoken for the first time as a mom of two about how those priorities shifted career aspirations inside or outside of World Wrestling Entertainment. While speaking in an exclusive interview with People Magazine, on the whole, sobriety came with a real challenge: trying to strive for a mommy and pro versus choosing to be a parent over attempting in-ring work against the WWE rings. A Storied WWE Career Before discussing Maryse’s current status, let’s go back and understand her fantastic background in professional wrestling. Maryse Ouellet Mizanin was born on January 21, 1983, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and first entered the WWE scene as a finalist in the 2006 Diva Search competition. She didn’t win the competition, but her potential was taken into notice, and she was signed to a contract with WWE. Maryse soon managed to hold herself within the ring as a stubborn opponent. She faced the proper WWE training in farmlands like Ohio Valley Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling before landing herself with SmackDown in the year 2008. With in-ring talent, adding up some strikes, along with an oozy charm, the game was pretty near getting into the women’s division where one could already have reached above all. In December 2008, Maryse achieved her first major feat in her career when she defeated Michelle McCool to win her first WWE Divas Championship. That would not be all for this beauty in terms of championships. In the year 2010, she became the first two-time Divas Champion and held the title for a single reign for as long as 216 days. That made her one of the most dominant female wrestlers of her era. Transition to Management and Reality TV Since leaving WWE in 2011, Maryse has been pursuing other ventures both within and outside the circle of wrestling. Her career reached an interesting point in April 2016 when she made the surprising return to WWE as a manager for her real-life husband, The Miz. In that position, it put Maryse in an active role that let her wit and cunning come into play, helping The Miz find his way to success inside the ring. Their on-screen chemistry and real-life relationship sparked interest among fans and executives alike. In 2018, Maryse and The Miz got their own reality TV show, “Miz & Mrs.,” which follows behind-the-scenes of the WWE Superstars and new parents. The show has really done quite well with the audience, having run multiple seasons so far and giving the fans a peek into how challenging it is to balance such a highly visible career with family life. Everything is Changed by Motherhood Over the last couple of years, Maryse has become quite focused on being a mom. She and her husband, The Miz, welcomed their first daughter, Monroe Sky, born in 2018, followed by their second, Madison Jade, in 2019. Becoming a parent greatly changed her perspective and priorities. In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Maryse discussed the wild ways motherhood has changed her and her decisions around her career. “As much as we love what we do, the kids are now priority and number one,” she said. With such changes in priorities, Maryse has used this opportunity to reassess just how much she is investing in the exhausting world of professional wrestling. There are several challenges in juggling a WWE career with motherhood. Especially for parents with young kids, the grueling travel schedule, physicality of in-ring performance, and time away from family are the most difficult. Maryse was candidly honest about her own struggles in finding a balance: “Especially as a woman, it’s difficult with two kids. I can’t travel that way. And then I don’t want to.” Choosing Family Over Fame The decision of Maryse to not return full-time to WWE competition for the sake of her children speaks to what it means to be a mother. She left little doubt as to her feelings: “I want to be there for my kids. And that’s what makes me happy. I want to go to bed at night and know that I’m in the same house as my kids, so as much as I love the business—I miss it—I choose my kids.” The latter is what connects to the dilemma of many parents who face similar predicaments in their career paths. More so, professional wrestling usually encompasses an unbearable work schedule, considering the time investment required on tour and preparing bodies for the grind in the ring. Maryse’s choice pinpoints how seriously difficult options lay ahead for women in wrestling, much like other fields, once the family-building stage is considered. The Challenges of “Mom Guilt” Maryse has been candid about feeling “mom guilt,” as many working mothers do. She once shared in an interview, “I’m with them all day, every day, but I sometimes feel like it’s never enough. The mom guilt is really something that not many moms talk about. You leave your house for an hour, and you feel guilty about it.” Many mothers can relate to this feeling as they fight to be present for their children while keeping their professional ambitions. Maryse’s honesty about these feelings normalizes the experience for other working mothers and sheds light on the emotional challenges often unspoken. The Miz’s Take Although Maryse has stepped back from active competition, her husband, The Miz, is still very relevant in WWE. In this same PEOPLE interview, The Miz spoke to the balance between fatherhood and his wrestling career: “I love my kids to death. And I try to find that healthy balance of fulfilling our dreams—but also because we want to show our kids if you have a dream, go after it and do what you have to do. But you also have to be that parent and that dad.” The different approaches the couple has toward their careers after the baby really bring out how personal such decisions are. While The Miz is still chasing his