File. Ashlyn Harris at Glamour’s 2024 Women of the Year held at The Times Square EDITION on October 8, 2024 in New York City.
Originally appeared on E! Online.
Ashlyn Harris is making a huge play at honesty.
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WATCH HEREThe retired soccer star recently opened up about her difficult past, detailing her misuse of amphetamines while battling sports injuries in college at the University of North Carolina.
“I was getting really heavily addicted to Adderall and misusing it,” Harris said on the March 21 episode of the "Question Everything with Danielle Robay" podcast. “I was taking it all the time. I would go days without sleeping. It was wild. I felt like I was gonna give myself a heart attack. I was crushing it. I was snorting it. It was so problematic.”
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SIGN UP The 39-year-old — who confirmed her relationship with "One Tree Hill" alum Sophia Bush in April 2024 — continued of her college soccer career, “Then I was like, ‘Oh, it makes me skinny. It curbs my appetite.’ It was just a toxic, toxic time for me because it was the first time that I started to have my character tested because I started to get injured.”
But despite her addiction struggle while recovering from her multiple ACL and labrum injuries, Harris' college soccer coach Anson Dorrance was there to support her.
READ: Where Ashlyn Harris and Ex Ali Krieger Stand After Breakup
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“It got really, really dark and I had to make some serious adjustments,” she explained, “and Anson would have me read books. I started reading this book called [Man’s Search] for Meaning and it's about suffering and reframing it and it changed my life.”
In the aftermath of her college experience, the two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champ is now focused on using the hard-won lessons she learned to build a better future for her children, Sloane, 4, and Ocean, 2, who she shares with ex-wife Ali Krieger.
“I have a lot of trauma in my life and I have a lot of scars. I do not want to project and place that on my children,” Harris shared. “When you become a mom and you're molding young humans, your perspective in life changes. You have to get your s--- together because they see and hear everything.”
She added, “I just want to give my kids the best tools to be whoever they want to be. But at the core of them, they need to be good people. They have to be good people. How they serve their community, how they show up for their friends, that matters.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with drug addiction, call the national hotline for drug abuse at 1-888-633-3239 to receive information regarding treatment and recovery.
