MMA star Angela Lee reveals 2017 car crash was actually suicide attempt

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This story may contain details that are disturbing. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

Angela Lee is the current women’s atomweight champion in One Championship and has been since 2016 when she defeated Mei Yamaguchi for the title. She’s also defended her title five times.

More than a year after Lee won the championship, she was involved in a serious car crash in Hawaii. She fell asleep behind the wheel of her vehicle.

However, Lee shared the whole story in a recent piece for The Players’ Tribune. She wrote the crash was actually a suicide attempt.

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Angela Lee walks out to face Jenny Huang in the main event of ONE Championship: Warrior Kingdom event at the Impact Arena on March 11, 2017, in Bangkok, Thailand. (Dux Carvajal/ONE Championship/Getty Images)

"For the longest time, I blocked that reality out of my mind in order to ‘protect myself.’ I put up barriers as a defense mechanism, to try and protect my mind and my heart from what had actually happened," she wrote in the essay. "And even all these years later, after a lot of healing, it’s still difficult to think about, let alone talk about."

Lee wrote that toward the end of 2017 she started to feel the stress and pressure of what would be her last title defense of the year. She wrote that she was putting everything she had into making weight for the fight.

"And, as an athlete, in all honesty, that mentality can be useful and motivating. But it’s also a double-edged sword. And, with me, I got to a point where I had pushed my mind and body