During a recent appearance on “The Tamron Hall Show,” WWE couple Carmella and Corey Graves shared their experience navigating fertility and introduced their newborn son.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Carmella on her son’s birth: “I just feel like I was so open with my struggles with fertility, with the miscarriages and then I was an open book during my pregnancy. I kind of shared everything in my journey. I felt like with the labor and delivery, you know, it took me almost 60 hours until he was born so it was a labor, that’s for sure, and I just had no idea that it’d be that long. I worked out my entire pregnancy, I ate healthy, I read the books, I took the classes and I was really prepared, I thought, and had, you know, a birth plan, you know, and I had an open mind with that because I knew things don’t always go according to plan. I just wanted to share my story because I felt like if I’m feeling a little upset or devastated about how long it was taking me to bring this perfect bundle of joy into the world, I know other women are too so I just think it’s important to be transparent.”
Corey Graves on Carmella kicking him out of the delivery room: “Well the champion spent a few hours alone because she kicked me out of the room because she couldn’t tolerate me anymore! She sent me home because I was of no use to anybody until I was well rested so she powered through on her own for a little bit. But I was there for about, I’d say about 95% of the journey.”
Carmella on becoming a mother: “I just feel like until you’re a mom, you don’t know. You can read all the books, everyone can tell you until you’re blue in the face what it’s like to be a mother but until you’re in it, you have no other option than to just do it and be it and I mean, I just feel like I’m thriving. This is where I’ve always meant to, I think the role I’ve always meant to be in and I just love being a mom. It’s just my favorite, favorite thing in the whole wide world.”
Carmella on not picking a name for their son yet: “Oh that’s a good question. I mean, all he does is eat and sleep and poop so I don’t know, whatever has to do with that.”
Corey Graves on his son being born with a giant ego: “The important thing to realize is he now understands that his gender reveal was done on national television so he was born with a giant ego. He’s hard to deal with sometimes!”
Carmella and her husband Corey Graves welcomed their first child, Dimitri Paul Polinsky, in November last year.
On a recent edition of the “Insight” podcast, Carmella reflected on her pro wrestling journey, her motherhood experience, the potential timing of her return to WWE, and other related topics.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On a possible WWE return: “I would love to return. I mean, obviously, I’m so immersed in this motherhood world right now. But honestly, I actually have an injury from delivery. So I have a lot of nerve damage that happened and my foot is kind of non-functional right now. So it’s something that I never knew could happen during labour and delivery but I have two herniated discs in my back and that is correlated to my foot. So I haven’t even been able to work out. I haven’t been able to do anything that will get me back to the ring quite yet. Hopefully, eventually, I’ll get there. But right now I’m just kind of working, I’m going to be in physical therapy and things like that, too. I mean, I’ve been wrestling for 11 years, I’ve never been injured knock on wood. And now here I have a baby and I’m going to physical therapy so I don’t know how that works out. But here we go.”
On not getting called up to the main roster in 2016: “We were at WrestleMania 32. I guess Triple H had talked to Enzo and Cass separately and told them they’re debuting the next night on Raw. They were talking about it because we had done tours together. We had done loops, and I was with them. So I thought okay, well when they go up, of course I’m going up with them. So when I found out that Triple H had talked to them and someone came and pulled me off the bus we were about to leave. It was TakeOver I think, I don’t even remember what we’re doing. But I was pulled off the bus. We’re about to head back to the hotel, [someone says] ‘Triple H wants to talk to you.’ I’m like, oh yeah, we’re debuting tomorrow! I was so excited. And he pulled me and he’s like, ‘Enzo and Cass are debuting tomorrow.’ And I’m like, yeah. [He says] ‘You’re not going to debut with them.’ My world just came crashing down. I was devastated in the moment. But now I look back and he had told me this is a good opportunity for you to prove who you are on your own. You’re going to be a strong character, you don’t need to be with them, you’re going to be strong on your own. And at the time, of course, it was devastating to hear but it all worked out I think the way it’s supposed to. And here I am 11 years later still here and killing it.”
On her 24/7 title segments with R-Truth: “I just loved being paired with R-Truth. He is such a treasure and he’s such a good person and so fun to be around. It was just full-on shenanigans all the time whether the cameras were rolling or they weren’t. We just always had fun ideas. We would adlib things that weren’t in the script and it was just fun to play off each other in that aspect. And I just think you just never knew what to expect and people were looking forward to seeing what we were going to do. You know, we’re in costumes and disguises and just getting into the most ridiculous situations. I just loved being that entertainment part of the show, rather than going out, I had already at that point been Women’s Champion, I showed what I can do in the ring. Let me show what I can do with my character and be fun and be silly and have comedic timing and play off somebody. I think to be able to have that range is so important. Not everyone can do that and I’m so grateful I was afforded the opportunity to show that side of my character, especially alongside R-Truth.”
