Wrestling star Becky Lynch: ‘You’re reading these horrific allegations, but about somebody who is like a father figure’

The wrestling star on her journey from the Dublin suburbs to the summit of her business, the thrill of playing with a crowd’s emotions and her coming to terms with allegations against WWE founder Vince McMahon

Becky 'The Man' Lynch in action in the WWE

Marc Haynes

Sitting in her kitchen in Iowa with her trademark orange hair pulled back into a ponytail and a vacuum flask of coffee clasped in one hand, Becky Lynch doesn’t look like the sort of person who makes a living from smashing people in the face. But that’s her living, and it’s a good one. The 37-year-old Dubliner has spent the last five years as the most popular and highest-paid female wrestler in the world.

This morning, she is in the midst of “an insane amount” of press for her autobiography, Not Your Average Average Girl, which will eat up the handful of moments the Irish star doesn’t spend wrestling, training, travelling, parenting or sleeping.