Ric Flair has never claimed to be an easy man to be married to, and he’s laying out in plain terms why that lifestyle cost him four marriages.
Speaking on the Dual Time podcast, Flair was asked whether maintaining his larger-than-life persona ever pushed him to spend money he didn’t want to spend.
He said that wasn’t really the issue. He was simply well known for buying rounds of drinks, explaining that since he made significantly more money than the wrestlers he socialized with, picking up the tab felt like the least he could do so they wouldn’t have to justify the expense to their own spouses when they got home.
No, I just, um, to be quite honest with you, like, I’m famous for buying drinks. I mean, that’s everybody says, he spent, always buying. I was making more money than the guys I was hanging around with, and I felt like for them to come out with me, the least I could do is pay the tab. Does that make sense?
That distinction is exactly where Flair says his own marriages differed. Unlike the wrestlers he drank with, he never felt obligated to explain his behavior to his wives at all.
Because if I’m making 500 grand more than these guys, it’s not fair, you know, for us to go to these places and then, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re having to go home to their wives and explain.
He simply told them what he was doing, and if they didn’t like it, the relationship ended. By his own accounting, that pattern directly explains why he’s been divorced four times.
I never explain anything to my wives. I just told them what I was doing. If they didn’t like it, they’re gone. So, hence four divorces.
Flair also recalled one specific moment that captured his approach. A wife once questioned what he had in common with a 30-years-younger John Cena.
Rather than engaging with the question, Flair said he brushed it off entirely and moved on without further discussion.
Um, one of them actually had the nerve to ask me one time what I had in common with John Cena because he was 30 years younger than me. I said, ‘You know what? Let me think about that and I’ll get back to you tomorrow.’ Bong. Calling the front desk, taking no calls. Yeah. I don’t think so, honey. That has never worked for me.
For Flair, the throughline is simple: the same larger-than-life character fans saw on television bled directly into his personal life and relationships, and he believes that blurred line is largely what did his marriages in.
