Angela Lee bares 2017 incident a culmination of tremendous internal turmoil within herself: “I just didn’t care anymore”

Angela Lee’s somber re-telling of the tragedy she and her family went through in the past few years was one of the bravest pieces of writing an athlete, or a person for that matter, ever made.

Her essay for The Players’ Tribune and her somber interview with MMA legend Daniel Cormier shed light on a couple of incidents that shook the famed Lee family to the core.

It was in her interview with Cormier at ESPN MMA that Angela Lee revealed the events leading up to her harrowing car crash in 2017. While the incident was reported as an accident at first, Lee admitted it was an attempt to take her own life.

Angela Lee said:

“Being raised in the family that I was you know, being tough and doing whatever you need to get the job done, it’s a good thing to have, but it's a double-edged sword because, you know, on one hand, it gives you that you know work ethic and drive and determination. But on the other side, sometimes you end up hurting yourself in the process.”

The ONE women’s atomweight champion added:

“So for me, you know with the combination of things getting in my car in that early morning. I just didn't care anymore. I didn't care if I lived or died because it was just … so I thought no one else cared about me. I was like ‘Can't they see that I'm suffering and what I'm going through? Nobody, nobody else cares’. I thought, you know, your mind, plays tricks on you and tells you lies when you are not healthy. And so in my head, I had all of these thoughts and that was my solution to it. But I'm so glad that I'm here today.”

After her car crash in late 2017, Lee made a triumphant return to the Circle and scored a unanimous decision win over Mei Yamaguchi to retain the ONE women’s atomweight MMA world title in May 2018.

Angela Lee defended the gold a total of five times. She last fought in a losing effort against archrival Xiong Jing Nan for the ONE women’s strawweight MMA world title at ONE on Prime Video 2 in September 2022.

Watch Lee's entire interview below:

‘Unstoppable’ has yet to get back into action after she went into an indefinite hiatus following the untimely passing of her younger sister Victoria in December 2022.