Matt Hardy discussed his brother Jeff’s personal troubles over the years on the Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast.
“This whole week, and this whole discussion about my brother, is much, much bigger than pro wrestling. I mean, this is a point where, you know, all I’m concerned about is Jeff’s health and his well being, and I just want him in a good, safe place. That’s all I’m concerned about and whatever it is going to take for him to get there is what I want for him. I was very saddened, and the actual word that I said was very disheartening, about the events that happened, but I support my brother 100%, and I’m gonna pull for him, and I’m gonna give him as much support as I can to help him be as healthy and as well as he can possibly be.”
“I feel like some of Jeff’s issues probably come from our mother dying when he was so, so young. That was always an issue that he carried with him deeply. I know 100%, the biggest thing that drives me to stay healthy and not have an addiction issue at all, because I’m sure I have an addictive personality, but the thing that keeps me running and stronger than anything else is my family, my children, specifically. I mean, my wife as well. She would whip my ass as everyone knows. Any kind of chemical addiction that I might have, or would have, all that has been traded in for the addiction of my children. That is a real thing that I love. I think about them growing up and I want to cry. There’s a finite amount of time that I’m going to be able to spend with them so I try to maximize and I want to optimize each and every moment I have with them.”
“Once we got into wrestling back in the day, there were times where stuff was kind of thrown on us and we were still really good. We were resilient about things as far as being out of control until we split. That was the first time there were ever really any chemical dependency issues. That’s when Jeff was away from me. He was on the RAW show and he was traveling with two guys who were pretty well known for using recreational drugs at that time. That is when Jeff first got bad and he ended up being released in 2003.”
“I’m very proud that the culture has changed so drastically over the last 25 years. If you were having mental health issues, if there’s something that is messing with you in some sort of stress, or anxiety, or panic attack you’re having, I almost feel like back in the wild, wild west days, they would just have looked at you as weak, as opposed to actually comprehending and having sympathy with you and understanding it’s a legitimate issue that people legitimately have. Now with AEW, it is just such a forward thinking company as it is in general anyway. So those things are definitely addressed. They’re looked for. If you need help, or if you need to speak with someone, if you need any mental health issue addressed, they have people there to talk to and it’s something that is on the radar, which is great. Then once again, the younger kids, the culture of pills, drugs, and booze just is nowhere near where it was before. I’m not gonna say it’s non-existent, because it’ll probably never be non-existent. But in AEW, the young kids that are there, it just doesn’t even exist to them. That’s not even cool to them and that’s a really refreshing thing to see out of the change of culture.”
You can listen to the show below:
(quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)
