WWE Superstar Gabbi Alon Tuft, formerly known in the ring as 'Tyler Reks,' confirmed on Feb. 4 she is transgender.
"The ball dropped early today as this is now worldwide news. This is me. Unashamed, unabashedly me," the 42-year-old athlete wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of herself. "This is the side of me that has hidden in the shadows, afraid and fearful of what the world would think; afraid of what my family, friends, and followers would say or do."
"I am no longer afraid and I am no longer fearful," Tuft continued. "I can now say with confidence, that I love myself for WHO I am." Tuft also revealed that the past eight months "have been some of the darkest of my entire life," but noted that her family and friends have accepted her for who she is, noting, "To them, I am forever grateful. Your support along the way means more than you will ever know."
Tuft further discussed her decision to come out publicly as trans in an interview with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman, admitting, "I'm very very happy... I feel like I have a prison sentence that just [ended], and I'm free."
Tuft shared that, before accepting herself as Gabbi, she would dress up in the privacy of her home at night. She stopped keeping her identity a secret in August 2020, after Gabbi's wife Priscilla told her it was hard to see her living a double life. "Being a kind of an extremist, I said, 'OK, no problem. Gabbi's gone. Don't worry about it,'" Tuft recalled. "And she was like, 'No, no, that's not what I mean.'"
While Tuft initially tried to suppress Gabbi, she admitted, "It got harder and harder to look away. And I found myself one day, I literally stopped and looked at one of my favorite wigs, and I reached out with my hand. And I just kind of touched it, and I felt it. And I had this moment where I realized -- well, first of all, I realized that Gabe and Gabbi weren't two people. They were one."
Tuft signed with WWE in 2008 under the ring name Tyler Reks. She parted ways with WWE in 2012 and officially retired from wrestling in 2014 to spend more time with her family.
Source: Instagram, Wrestling Inc.
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