The 5 Best Excerpts From Ric and Charlotte Flair’s New Book

Things seem to be turning in the right direction for Ric Flair and his family. After surviving quite the health scare, Ric now gets to enjoy the release of a book he co-authored with his daughter, Charlotte. Second Nature: The Legacy of Ric Flair and the Rise of Charlotte is set to hit stores on September 19th.

The first half of the memoir covers the final moments Ric Flair’s wrestling career as well as documenting his personal struggles with divorce and the death of his son, Reid.

For Charlotte, the current WWE Superstar details her childhood as the Nature Boy’s daughter along with her introduction and imminent success in the wrestling industry.

You’ll have to wait 2 weeks for the full thing, but we have a couple of the best snippets from their story that serves as a solid teaser. Thanks to the Charlotte Observer for scouring the text and providing the quotes.

Flair’s Failed Marriages

Flair amazingly surviving a plane crash in 1975. However, there was a moment when he thought he wouldn’t and in his moment of mortality he had to cover some scandalous tracks: 

“The EMTs pulled us out, and I heard one of them say, ‘Hurry up. We might lose this one.’ I thought, They’re talking about me. So I said to the guy, ‘Go into my shaving kit. There’s a letter in there. Take it out and get rid of it. I wrote a letter to a girl telling her how much I loved her.’ If I wasn’t going to make it, I didn’t want my wife Leslie to discover the letter when she was sorting through my personal effects.”

According to Flair, his third wife, Tiffany VanDemark stole and sold his patented robes: 

 “What I later learned in court was that she met someone online and allegedly sold the robes on the side of the highway for about $7,500. They were easily worth an estimated $50,000.”

Fourth wife, Jackie Beems, sounds like a bit of a loose cannon: 

 “She went down a line of martini glasses and smashed them into her head. She said she was going to make herself bleed and then call the police and tell them I beat her up.”

Living the Gimmick

Flair believed that for the Nature Boy persona to truly live, he had to make the proper investments: 

“I did whatever I could to make the people believe what they saw was the real deal: from buying a limousine from the governor of North Carolina and hiring a gas station attendant to be my driver . . . to appearing in handmade suits with alligator shoes and a Rolex President that shone like the sun . . . to filling my closets with diamond-studded robes that cost $10,000 a pop. To make them today would cost around $30,000 each…Nothing else mattered. What I do know is that I won’t go down in history as the greatest father – not because I didn’t care or try – because I was so focused on myself.”

Charlotte’s Doll House

To be the daughter of Ric Flair did have a couple perks, though. Like a life-size Barbie flat:

“My parents had a dollhouse built for me. I don’t mean the Barbie Dreamhouse in my bedroom with a pink Corvette next to it, or something with a handle that I could take with me, or even a scale model of a Victorian home. This was my own house. Just off our deck was a little white wood house – something off the pages of my mom’s Southern Living magazine. Once you passed the planted flowers in the front, you’d open the door and walk on Italian marble floors, stroll under elegant ceiling fans in each room, and see a ladder that led to a second-floor loft that was a bedroom.”

Charlotte’s Toxic Relationship

In 2008, Charlotte found herself in an abusive relationship. The unfortunate situation served as some of the darker times in the WWE Superstar’s life:  

“If he was happy, things were great; he was the man of my dreams. If he was angry, everyone knew it, and it would be taken out on someone or something.” Charlotte shares her side of the much-publicized 2008 altercation in Chapel Hill, and alleges there were multiple instances in which arguments led to him becoming physically violent with her. In one, “Riki started swinging at me like we were in a street fight. Over his screams, I could hear his fists hit my arms. I managed to block most of the punches, but one shot got me in the ribs. I began to gasp for air, but he didn’t stop.” In another, “Riki punched me right in the head.” “I think about that girl now, and it brings tears to my eyes. How did I get there? Why was this going on? Why wasn’t I strong enough, brave enough, to end this?”

Flair recalls a painful memory of where Charlotte’s volatile relationship actually got her arrested:

” ‘Your daughter–!’ and that’s all I had to hear. My daughter did everything for this guy. He could barely hold a job. I got up and said, ‘Do you think you’re a man behaving this way? You’re not a man.’ Ashley’s boyfriend exploded in a fury and started throwing punches at me. I just stood there. … Police arrived, and all hell broke loose. … When one of the police officers entered her space and asked her to put her hands behind her back, I heard her say, ‘Don’t touch me. I said don’t touch me.’ The next thing I knew, the officer used a Taser to subdue her. She was brought to the floor and taken into police custody in handcuffs. Her boyfriend assaulted me, I had bruises on my face, and somehow my daughter, who tried to be the peacekeeper, was arrested.”

Reid Flair’s Death

Flair feels guilt for enabling and ignoring some of his son, Reid’s, worrisome behaviors:

“Putting everything together – the partying at school, those failed tests, and the recent road incidents with police – I felt like a building fell on me.”

It sounds like this is a wound that may never heal for Flair:

“Did I push him too hard as an athlete? Did I let him see too much of the partying lifestyle? Was I too much of a best friend? Should I have brought myself to do what the experts recommended and administer tough love? Would he still be here if I had? … I’ll never recover from not being able to save my son.”

For Charlotte, he memories of her brother seem to be a little healthier: 

Reid pushed me to pursue a WWE career, and now I’m living his dream. I sense his presence most when I’m performing – walking to the ring, feeling the canvas underneath my boots and the ropes across my hands. WrestleMania week is when I get the strongest sense that Reid is by my side. I think it will be that way for the rest of my life.”