Olympian Ryan Lochte Recalls How He Saved His Marriage to Kayla Reid From Divorce

Ryan Lochte and Kayla Reid Lochte will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary on January 9, however, the Olympic swimming champion revealed that their marriage nearly ended in divorce.

Lochte, 39, has won 12 Olympic gold medals. When he did not qualify for the USA 2021 Summer Olympics swim team, he became so depressed that his marriage was in jeopardy.

Lochte opened up about his mental health problems when he spoke to his season 23 Dancing with the Stars partner, Cheryl Burke, Monday, November 27 on her "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" podcast.

"I would always wake up and I couldn't even go outside to take my trash out to the end of the driveway,” Lochte said.“I couldn't even get out of bed. … Me and my wife, we were about to get a divorce because she was like, 'Who are you?'"

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Lochte said he would “cry all the time,” explaining “I would wake up every day, look at myself in the mirror and be like, 'F–king pathetic.' … I let everyone down and I think that was the biggest thing because I love everybody. I have a good heart."

Lochte became engaged to Kayla, 32, in October 2016, and they married in January 2018. They have three children: son Caiden Zane, 6; and daughters Live Rae, 4 and Georgia June, 5 months.

Lochte said the love of his wife and children were the key to his recovery.

"The biggest thing that helped was my family,” he continued.

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After battling alcoholism in the past, Lochte revealed he is now 60 days sober, and focusing on being a good husband and father. Now that he has turned his life around, he said, "You're always going to get knocked down no matter what, but it's how you get back up and how you keep moving forward is who you are."

Lochte’s biggest knock down occurred in 2016. While participating in the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, he falsely claimed that he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint. He was charged with providing a false claim of a robbery. The charges were later dismissed.

Lochte later admitted he was drunk at the time, and USA Swimming suspended him from domestic and international competitions for 10 months.

Two years later, he entered an alcohol rehab program following an incident when police were called after he reportedly attempted to kick in his own hotel room door in Newport Beach, California.

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“I was just headed to a dark, dark place,” Lochte told The Guardian in June 2021. “It just seemed like every time that I was drinking heavily, I was doing something stupid and it was a pattern. It made me realize the path I was heading down if I kept going that route. And if I would have kept that pattern, who knows what could have happened? I could have ended up in a car wreck. Or killing someone else. So it was definitely a wake-up call. I needed to grow up, smell the coffee and be like, this is not you. You need to change who you are.”

Lochte is one of the most decorated Olympics swimmers in history, but for him, having a beautiful wife and children is what is most important..

“It’s everything that I’ve ever wanted in life,” he continued in The Guardian interview.

“This trumps every gold medal I’ve ever won. This hands-down is my calling: being a dad, being a husband. The swimming is just the cherry on top,” Lochete added. “Before I couldn’t say that. Swimming was my world. Swimming was everything. But life has changed and I’m happy it did because, me inside, I’m proud of who I’ve become.”