Charlotte Flair felt like she needed to "hide" her struggles with mental health and anxiety.

The 39-year-old WWE superstar - who will celebrate her 40th birthday next month - has opened up about how being in the public eye has meant she felt pressured to keep her real life battles under wraps.

She told the Sports Business Journal: "As a female that's approaching 40, I started thinking about what's next for me and what feels organic and real.

"A lot of my career, I felt like I had to hide whether I had anxiety or mental health issues that are taboo to talk about."

As a result, Charlotte - whose real name is Ashley Fleir - has made a six figure investment in lifestyle brand Self-Care Is For Everyone, which launched in 2018 and has combined mental health advocacy with a range of apparel, art and video content.

Flair added: "Whether I make money or don't, for me right now, I'm investing in something that's going to help other people.

"I hope that investing and spreading awareness really does help."

As well as getting a 10 percent equity stake in the brand, she will be an active creative partner and official brand champion, sharing Self-Care Is For Everyone's messaging to her own audiences.

The 14-time champion will also collaborate with the brand on limited edition products, and eventually create content about her own mental health.

Flair revealed the kind of messaging the brand shares with its followers helped her realise issues with her own on-screen character feeling "unbreakable".

She explained: "I made Charlotte so unrelatable by being perfect. That was such a disconnect because people want authenticity.

"What has helped my career is making this unbreakable woman breakable and showing that some days I don't feel pretty, or good, or enough, or even worthy."

Flair previously admitted that 2024 was the "hardest year" of her life since her brother Reid died from an overdose aged 25 in 2013.

Two years ago, she was struggling with a devastating injury which cost her over a year of her career, while she also got divorced from fellow wrestler Andrade.

She previously told the Metro newspaper: "It was the hardest year I've ever had since my brother passed away, and I wouldn't change anything. It made me realise that I would choose this path again and again and again.

"It gave me clarity. It gave me perspective. And to go through some of the things that I went through, I think, gives Charlotte a little more edge, a little more 'this is why.' "