UFC star Paige VanZant has revealed she was gang-raped by students from her high school when she was just 14 and that the incident left her contemplating suicide.
The 24-year-old mixed martial arts fighter opened up on being sexually assaulted and bullied as a teenager in her new book Rise: Surviving the Fight of My Life.
VanZant said on the night she was attacked she had been influenced to drink at the party by a group of boys from her school in Oregon.
She claims they later raped her but did not reveal if the boys ever faced charges.
VanZant said some of her classmates later found out and spread rumors that the sex was consensual instead of rape.
The fighter said she had been bullied prior to the rape but it became more severe after the rumors spread.
She was born Paige Sletten but changed her name after students started calling her 'Paige Slutton'. VanZant also came home from school one day to find condoms hanging from the trees around her house.
She told in an interview to promote her book that she would often run to the bathroom to eat lunch because she was too scared to eat in the cafeteria with other students.
VanZant said she felt completely isolated and considered attempting suicide.
'I didn't see any other way out,' she said.
'When you're in that position, when you're feeling that much pain, it's not that you want to die... you just don't want to be in pain anymore.
'I didn't have anywhere to run to, I didn't have anybody to turn to.'
VanZant said the events of that night changed her but mixed martial arts helped in her recovery.
'MMA fighting saved my life. It saved who I was as a person too,' she said.
She said she only recently told her parents of the assault because she feared she would disappoint them.
VanZant, who has won seven of her 11 professional fights, is still recovering from a hand injury she sustained in her last bout in January.
She won her first UFC fight at 20 years of age and went on to star in Dancing With The Stars.
-Dailymail
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