Kurt Angle has opened up about the passing of his sister Le\'Anne Angle.
The Olympic Gold medallist recently had an interview with Danielle McCartan. Among other things, Kurt talked openly about his pill addiction during his time in WWE.
Angle mentioned that at one time he was taking more than 50 pills a day and hiding his addiction from everyone. The incident that made him realize that he had a problem was the sudden passing of his sister Le\'Anne, right before his big Iron Man match with Brock Lesnar back in September 2003:
\"I remember at one point in time, I was getting ready for the biggest match in my career. It was going to be a one-hour Iron Man match against Brock Lester. I was at a house show—an non-televised show—the night before. I just got done wrestling, my brother, Eric called me. He said, \'Listen, your sister Le\'Anne just died of a heroin overdose.\'
Man, that devastated me. I remember I went back to my hotel room, grabbed about 30 pills, threw them in my mouth, chewed them up, and swallowed them. I didn\'t want to feel any pain and I passed out. I didn\'t wake up until 4:30 in the afternoon the next day.
The WWE was trying to get a hold of me all day long to tell me I didn\'t have to show up for TV; I could go home and plan the funeral for my sister. I looked up at the ceiling and said, \'Le\'Anne, what do you want me to do?\' And all I could hear was, \'Do it for me. Do it for me.\' So, I went and wrestled, and I had the greatest match of my career.\
I Was Such A Hypocrite: Kurt Angle
Kurt Angle would stay with WWE for 3 more years before finally deciding to leave the company and join TNA. While Angle got over his painkiller addiction in TNA, he went deep into alcohol addiction, getting 4 DUIs in a span of 5 years. He finally went to rehab after his 2013 arrest and the wrestling legend has been sober ever since.
The former World Champion was asked how he felt about the passing of his sister while he was dealing with an addiction himself. Angle revealed that he had actually stopped talking to her to try and get her to quit. Looking back at it now, it\'s one of the biggest regrets for the former World Champion:
\"That\'s what hurts the most looking back now I mean I was such a hypocrite. I didn\'t have a chance to talk to my sister before she passed away because I had too much pride. I didn\'t want her to know I had a drug problem. But I was criticizing her for hers. I said, \'Listen, I\'m not going to talk to you until you get clean.\' Unfortunately, she never got clean, and she passed away. So, I regret that decision.\
Angle was finally asked what he would tell his sister if he got the chance to do it all over again. The former WWE star said that he would have acknowledged his own problems and encouraged Le\'Anne to go into rehab with him:
\"I\'d tell her, listen, Le\'Anne, I\'m in this with you. We both need to go to rehab together. I would have loved to went to rehab with my sister, knowing that she was going to be with me, and I was going to be with her. I think we could have done it as a team, I think we\'d both be clean and alive, today.\
