Olympic star Ryan Lochte opens up on medication,…
Twelve-time Olympic medal profitable swimmer Ryan Lochte shocked followers this week by asserting he has taken a $30,000-a-year assistant teaching gig with Missouri State University.
It’s been a rocky few years for the champion after battling depression so crippling some days he couldn’t even get out of mattress, he told The Post in an exclusive interview from his current home in Gainesville, Florida.
Last August, he also went to rehab and he’s still in the midst of a bitter divorce from his estranged spouse, Kayla Rae Reid, the mom of his three youngsters, Caiden Zane, 8, Liv Rae, 6, and two-year-old Georgia June.
Ryan Lochte says girlfriend Molly Gillihan helped save his life. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
Lochte, who is still embroiled in his divorce from his first spouse Kayla Rae Reid, says he plans to wed Gillihan. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
But amid the turmoil, the 41-year-old has discovered love again with girlfriend Molly Gillihan, whom he credit for getting him back on his ft, and he’s soon hoping to marry.
“After the 2021 Olympic trials, I was in a very big depression,” the six-time gold medal winner reveals. “My mental health was gone and the family that I used to be residing in, it was poisonous and it wasn’t good for me.
“I was lost and it didn’t help that my other partner at the time would say, ‘You’re worthless, you’re a loser. You need to get up and get a job.’ And I was like, ‘I really can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’m lost.”
The couple met as their youngsters go to the same college in Gainesville, Florida – and they now share a ‘Brady Bunch’ family. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
Lochte said his previous family was “toxic”. He and Gillihan will transfer to Missouri in July. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
Lochte was left reeling additional after being in an nearly deadly car wreck in 2023, and admits he then dived into alcohol and medication.
“I just did it to escape the hell that I was living in,” he says. “It was largely weed and cocaine. Yeah, it’s horrible. I look at myself now and I’m just like, what the hell was I ever considering?
Despite accusations by Reid, Lochte insists, “I never did drugs in front of the kids” and doesn’t take into account himself to have ever been addicted.
The Olympian said his depression acquired so unhealthy he couldn’t get out of mattress to get the mail. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
After his stint in rehab, he went into therapy, which has enormously helped him. Now he says he’ll have a drink every now and then, including a glass of champagne lately to have a good time his one-year anniversary with Gillihan — and he doesn’t contact medication.
Lochte readily admits the most important turning level was at the Olympics in Rio 2016, when he was caught up in a major scandal, mendacity about being robbed at gunpoint.
He and three teammates, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and Jimmy Feigen, had truly vandalized a gasoline station toilet and paid security for damages. The Brazilian authorities didn’t take kindly to the initial accusations and the fallout led to misplaced sponsorships, a 10-month suspension for Lochte and widespread public backlash. He ended up dropping major sponsors including Ralph Lauren and Speedo, which value him about $2 million a yr.
Lochte married Kayla Rae Reid in January 2018. The pair, who share three youngsters, Caiden, Liv and Georgia, cut up last yr. Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
“It was the biggest wake-up call,” he says. “It was the most important fall that I’ve ever had and I fell into a black gap and I couldn’t get out. And I attempted to climb out and then once I acquired out, I acquired knocked back down…It occurred a number of occasions after 2016.
“No-one ever taught me what happens when you become famous or when you get all this money,” he added, “No one ever told me about financial literacy. No one ever told me about ever when you’re on top of the mountain and you fall down, how to get back up. No one never taught me that.
“But now I did it. I guess I was the guinea pig for myself and now I can honestly change people’s lives. I can help them, make them reach their dreams, their goals that I once had when I was a little kid and I could help them get there.”
Lochte – seen with Gillihan and 5 of their youngsters – plans to jet to Florida once a month to see his youngsters once he begins his teaching gig in Missouri. ryanlochte/Instagram
Since his marriage cut up and shifting out of his marital home, Gillihan has given him a new lease on life. He says she’s his largest supporter, “even though she had no idea what I did in the Olympics, which is so funny.”
The couple met as their youngsters attend the same college in Gainesville. It was due to his new associate — a kindergarten trainer and mom-of-three — that Lochte discovered his place with MSU, as Gillihan, 37, initially hails from Missouri.
Lochte said that “from day one” her household has been very open to him and down-at-home.
Lochte poses on the rostrum with the gold medal after profitable the boys’s 400m particular person medley swimming event at the London 2012 Olympic Games AFP via Getty Images
The champ – seen competing in a Men’s 200m Individual Medley heat at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – said he educated to be like a “lion”. AFP via Getty Images
“They didn’t care that I was Ryan Lochte, the swimmer. They just wanted to know me. And they fell in love with me. I fell in love with them. And every time that we go back to Missouri, I feel like at home… I just feel at peace,” he says.
After reaching out to faculties in Missouri, Lochte was provided two jobs. Although a lot has been made of his $34-an-hour wage, he makes it clear that’s not his motivation.
He lately made $385,000 from promoting 9 of his Olympic medals, and is a model ambassador for Friss Labs, a company specializing in power pouches. He also rakes in money from social media sponsorships.
Lochte said teammate Michael Phelps has helped him through his depression battle. Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
“I’m financially A-OK to support me and my entire Brady Bunch family,” the sportsman added. “I took this job because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. When I was swimming, I had a fire burning inside of me of becoming the best and that’s what drove me every day, every year.”
Asked if it was tough to let go of his medals, he mused,,”The factor that will get me the most is the journey that it took me to get there. The medals – they had been just amassing mud in a sock drawer.”
But he denied having to make the sale because he was strapped for money. “Lots of people acquired that fallacious…all the media that was saying, “Oh, we’ve got a lien on our home, the taxes and every part’.
Lochte said Gillihan’s household have welcomed him with open arms. ryanlochte/Instagram
“Do I have some tax debt? yes, but I did it because I don’t need them. And I’ve done the hard work. I cherish those memories…and if I got money from it, great!”
Lochte began training when he was just eight; he turned hooked after watching Pablo Morales win the 100-meter butterfly at the 1992 Olympics. Although he initially struggled when he went to the University of Florida, issues soon clicked.
“I started having that mamba mentality,” he said, referencing basketball great Kobe Bryant’s philosophy. “I started having that fire inside of me; I was a lion and I was hunting.”
The sportsman offered 9 of his 12 Olympic medals, but insists he’s financially “A-Ok”. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
He gained his 12 Olympic medals — three silver and three bronze, in addition to the six golds — over 4 Summer Olympic Games, spanning 2004 to 2016. He gained medals in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012), and Rio de Janeiro (2016). His staff still holds a world document in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.
But his bid to make his fifth Olympic staff fell short at the 2021 US Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. The then-36-year-old completed seventh in the 200-meter particular person medley last.
After 2021, “I lost all the fire in me,” Lochte admits. “I didn’t see the sunshine at the end of the tunnel.
After the chaos of Rio 2016, Lochte went on “Dancing With The Stars” Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
“I just lost everything because I felt like I was a failure. I was in so much depression and my partner at the time wasn’t helping me and I was just getting lost. I was looking at myself in the mirror every day and being like.. who the f–k am I? And it was rough. And I went for years like that.”
At first, he didn’t have any therapy, believing he may help himself. But his mother and father and siblings had been apprehensive, telling him, “You got to get out of this funk.”
“There was some points where I was so depressed that I didn’t even get out of my bed to go down to the mailbox, and it started affecting me as a father, which was killing me inside,” Lochte reveals, “But I didn’t know how to get out of that depression. I had no idea.”
At the height of his movie star, Lochte rolled with stars including Sylvester Stallone. They frolicked at the premiere of “The Expendables 2” in LA in August 2012. WireImage
Of Reid, who filed for divorce in March 2025 after seven years of marriage, he says, “We lost the love for each other a long, long time ago and we just stayed together for the kids and I was getting just beaten down emotionally and I turned to drugs and alcohol.”
Lochte shouldn’t be alone in having suffered mental health points. Olympic stars from his teammate Michael Phelps to gymnastics icon Simone Biles have spoken about their own battles.
“People think we could fall off a cliff and we’d come out with no bruises, no cuts,” he says. “No, it’s not that. We’re real people. We’ve just trained and outworked everyone else to get to where we are. We still bleed, we still cry, we still laugh. So yeah, mental health is very a big issue and I see it more and more in the younger generation now in sports.”
Lochte – seen with Mihail Alexandrov and Nicholas Thoman at the tenth FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships iin Dubai in December, 2010 – has gained a whole of 92 major worldwide medals. He gave most of the medals away. AFP via Getty Images
Indeed, Phelps, 40, has been a great pal and help. “He went through the same with depression,” said Lochte, “He was the one that helped me a lot along the way. We’re good friends. We talk probably once or twice every month.”
Lochte says after he met Gillihan it was as if a “weight lifted off my shoulder .. The fun, loving guy started coming back.”
Asked if they plan to wed, he beams, “Oh, one hundred pc. Lock that down! There’s no method I couldn’t. She’s my best buddy and my complete life, I’ve dated women all the time. I’ve gotten married, but I’ve never been with a lady that was my best buddy and love her at the same time and I discovered it. I discovered it with Molly and that is true love.
Lochte says he and Gillihan are a “power couple”. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
“I have unconditional love for her and for her kids and she has the exact same for me and my kids. We’re a power couple and we can conquer anything.”
The pair will journey by RV to Missouri in June and look for a new home.
Lochte has joint custody of his youngsters and will go to them in Florida once a month, while they may spend summer season holidays with him.
“I’m a free bird and I’m loving life to the fullest and nothing’s knocking me down,” Lochte says. Ryan Wendler for the NY Post
His son already has wonderful abilities in the water and does a “perfect butterfly” after watching his dad’s previous videos. But after one swimming follow, he said, “Daddy, swimming sucks.”
“I told him “Buddy, you’re eight years old. Go play. Don’t worry. Just go play,” Lochte laughs.
“The only good thing about all the highs and lows that I’ve been through is I can help other people out now,” he says.
“I’m a free bird and I’m loving life to the fullest and nothing’s knocking me down.”
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