Ryan Lochte recently revealed his relationship with his mother has been rocky and hasn’t spoken to her in “years.” The Olympic swimmer recently made an appearance on In Depth with Graham Bensinger and talked about his parents’ divorce in 2011. He said because of that, the entire family dynamic changed.
“When it happened, it was — we were all on my mom’s side,” Lochte said when talking about the divorce as reported by PEOPLE. But then later on in life, when I told her that she was going to be a grandma, and I’m having a kid, she said some very, very hurtful things that kind of ended our relationship, me and her.” The 36-year old Olympic gold medalist didn’t reveal what his mother said to him. However, he does want one thing from her.
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“She just said some things to me and my wife, but I mean, I can get over it, but I just want an apology from her,” he said. “And she said that she’ll never apologize. “She has nothing to say sorry for. And from there on, it’s — I haven’t spoken to her in years. ” Lochte went on to say that his focus now is his wife and their two kids. “I’m happy right now with my family,” he stated. “My job is to protect my family. And I will do anything, no matter what, to protect my family.”
Back in July, Lochte and his wife, Kayla, talked to PEOPLE about having four kids. “This is where she’s like, ‘If we have a third one, we can’t have an odd number. So you have to have four,’ “Lochte explained. “I’m like, ‘All right, I guess so. You’re the mom.’”
Along with being a family man, Lochte is gearing up for the Tokyo Olympics next year. Lochte is the second-most decorate swimmer in Olympic history in terms of medal won. He has collected 12 medals in four Olympics and holds the world record in the 200-meter individual medley. Only Michael Phelps has won more medals than Lochte. When he talked to PEOPLE in July, Lochte was looking to qualify for the Tokyo Games. At the time, Kayal said: “I want to do the Olympics. I want to enjoy the time celebrating, enjoy a good time together.”
