“Things are meant to happen for a reason” - Angela Lee on how she copes with grief and things beyond her control

Angela Lee has always shown incredible strength throughout her mixed martial arts career, both inside and outside the cage.

Apart from her battles inside the Circle, the former ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion has also faced tremendous challenges in her personal life.

Lee revealed in an emotional essay with The Players’ Tribune thta she tried to take her own life in 2017 and how the harrowing death of her younger sister, Victoria, shook her and her family to the core.

These two events certainly did a number on Lee’s overall health, but the Singaporean-American star has slowly come to terms that there are things in life that are beyond her control.

In an interview on the Keep it Aloha Podcast, Angela Lee discussed how acceptance helped her cope with the death of Victoria.

She said:

“What's helped me get through a lot of things, almost everything, is you know realizing that everything has a purpose and, you know, I'm not very religious or anything like that. But I do believe that things are meant to happen for a reason and we have no control over it.”

Lee ultimately retired from MMA in September 2023 when she vacated the undisputed ONE women’s atomweight MMA world champion right before the main event of ONE Fight Night 14 between Stamp Fairtex and Ham Seo Hee.

‘Unstoppable’ also founded the non-profit organization FightStory to help fellow fighters positively deal with their mental health.

Watch Lee's entire interview below:

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Angela Lee says reflection and journals helped her with her grief

Angela Lee has successfully transitioned from being a champion inside the cage, to being a champion of overall mental wellbeing.

In the same interview, Lee said another way she has dealt with grief is by maintaing a journal.

Lee noted how writing down her feelings and reflecting upon them kept her emotions in check. She said:

“I think reflection is a very helpful tool too. When my thoughts are getting out of control what I like to do is open my notebook get a pen and start writing down things that I'm grateful for. Start writing things that I'm glad are in my life and when you look at that and you try to shift you're trying to trick your mind and to look at the good because you know it's easy to get caught up once you're in the dark state of mind.”