AJ Lee peeled back the curtain on her real-life relationship with CM Punk during a recent appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, sharing the story of how their connection grew from on-screen chemistry to marriage.
According to AJ, their first kiss actually happened on WWE television — long before they ever entered a real relationship.
“We dated probably two years after our storyline. But our first kiss is on television, and then I put him through a table. Wrestling relationships,” AJ said with a laugh.
AJ recalled how Punk had always shown her respect even before their romance began, particularly during her days in NXT.
“Early on, I think he respected me to the point of… In NXT, he was one of the announcers, and when everyone else was shit on us, he would be like, ‘But AJ is cool.’ He was always putting me over. I think he just knew I love wrestling,” she explained.
She also described a memorable moment during their storyline when Punk intentionally went off-script to protect her.
“When we did the storyline together, I remember there was a… He was supposed to say something really mean to me in one of the live… One of the backstages that was going on live, and it was live. Then he didn’t say the mean thing, and he hit on me or something like, when you weren’t supposed to. I was like, ‘That was so cool.’ Yeah, it was not in the script, but he took care of me, and I thought that was really nice.”
AJ said their relationship developed gradually, beginning as a friendship while both were dating other people.
“I think we just… I don’t know. I think we were friends first, dating other people. Then once we were, we were both single at the same time. I think a part of me was like, ‘who knows? Let’s try this.’ Then I blinked and we were married in two months or something like that.”
She added that even long before they were dating, she had a strange intuition about their future.
“I do remember when we were just friends, zero romantic interest, we were talking at a restaurant one time, and he was saying something about he knows he’s never getting married. A weird voice in my head went, ‘You’re going to marry me.’”
AJ and CM Punk were married in June 2014 and remain one of wrestling’s most high-profile real-life couples.
AJ Lee on how her and CM Punk got together
“He’s saying something about that he knows he’s never getting married. A weird voice in my head went you’re going to marry me and I was like bitch who was that?”
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