Tay Melo recently opened up about the way the backlash to her relationship with Sammy Guevara affected her.
Guevara and Melo recently got married, but their relationship was initially the source of controversy. Previously, Guevara proposed to his girlfriend of eight years, Pam Nizio, in an AEW ring. The couple later split up, and Guevara started seeing Melo (known as Tay Conti at the time) shortly thereafter. Many fans subsequently accused Guevara of cheating and called Melo a homewrecker.
In an interview with Denise Salcedo, Melo began by explaining that the drama derailed the end of what had been her best year as a wrestler, and the controversy put her through a hard time.
"I am pretty sure everyone knows the whole drama...I came from judo and my life was always super stressful, cutting weight and then tournaments so I always took care of my mental health. So I always thought that I was a strong person mentally, until I got into wrestling. [Laughs] I love wrestling but man it's tough. It is really tough, especially now. At the end of 2021, there was the whole drama that happened with me and Sammy and I was super sad because that was the best year of my career in wrestling. Then at the end of the year, this whole drama happened and then I was really going through a hard time. I didn't want to defend myself or anything because I was like 'nothing that I say right now, people aren't gonna listen. They are gonna say whatever they want,'" Melo said.
She continued by noting that she didn't do anything wrong, and she tried not to take the negative reactions personally.
"But whenever I go to bed and I put my head on a pillow, I know who I am. I know I did nothing wrong and I was calm. I was like I have nothing to worry about. This is just like people talking sh** and I always say like if you don't know me personally I am not gonna take it personally because you don't know me , you know the character that I play on TV. You know a little bit of my life, I don't put my life out there as everybody thinks I do. They just know whatever I want them to know and they don't realize it which is great, I am doing my job well. I deactivated my Twitter, I never really talked about that before so it feels really good to put it out there right now. So I was like 'What am I doing with my life after this?' I was thinking a lot. I am doing whatever makes me happy, and I did nothing wrong," she said.
Melo went on to describe how she and Guevara respect the past relationships they had, and Sammy talks about his ex with respect as well. She made it clear that people fabricated the extensive drama when, in reality, none of it was true.
"People were making a lot of comments saying that "Oh do you think Sammy is not gonna do the same thing to you? He did it to his ex. How do you live with that?" And I am like, well I live with that because he didn't do that. And I knew it. Sammy and Pam, they were in a relationship for eight years. It's a life together, every time that Sammy talks about her, every time we've had a conversation about her or whatever, Sammy always talks about her with a lot of respect and love. They had a life together. I had a relationship before too for almost 8 years. We both had long relationships, we respect each other. Sammy and Pam always had a good relationship and they still have. It's like nobody needs to know that. I don't need to go to social media and put everything out there, how people think that I need to do. After the whole drama, she was the one that texted us to check on us, 'Hey I saw everything that is happening, I hope you and Tay are okay, I'm sorry.' People just created a whole storyline, a whole drama for something that never happened. Really never happened. I saw a couple comments that I cheated on my ex, which I was separated from for a long time, it's just that my relationship wasn't as public as Sammy's. So I never felt the need to put it out there. And I do whatever I want with my personal life. So I was like this is just bullshit, excuse my language. So I was like 'nah it's okay people are gonna forget about it,'" Melo said.
However, Melo admitted that the negativity started to affect her mental health. Eventually, she moved on as best she could and dealt with the consequences. She also noted that Guevara's ex has been nice to her and Sammy, and she emphasized that there was no drama.
"But I got really bad in here [points to her head], my mental health was not doing okay. After a couple days, a couple weeks it was like 'well this is my job, this is the life that I chose to do so I need to deal with the consequences and then try to do my best. Everything at home and in our personal life was going great.The relationship with Pam, she was super nice. When we got engaged, she texted us too.... So they talk sometimes and it's okay, it's an 8 year relationship, same thing with mine. People don't understand, they like to look for drama and really there was no drama at all which was unfortunate. It is what it is... We are all okay, we are all happy. And that's what really matters. She's doing good, we're happy, it's okay. We're human beings, relationships end, and I am pretty sure it was super hard for the four of us. We all had relationships before, so it was super hard. It's already hard to let it go even when you know it doesn't work anymore. You're used to this person, you love this person in a different way, it is hard... People were making bad comments, you're not helping, you're just poking something that already hurts. But I am glad that everything is okay now, people are still kinda talking but it's not that much. We're okay, all of us. In our own personal life we are happy. So that's what really matters," she said.
Overall, Melo stated that she and Guevara got through the difficult period because they love and support each other.
"Sammy and I were meant to be, it's crazy. He's really my best friend like before our relationship, we were really good friends. He helped me so much with stuff that I was going through and he was always there for me. I cried so much with him. I think that's how we became this force together. When he was going through his personal stuff, I was there for him. We're just best friends. We really are, it's crazy. We always say to each other, 'nothing that happens outside of our relationship, can affect us.' It doesn't, because we love each other, we have fun with each other," Melo said.
Melo recently commented on her name change and discussed some of her goals. You can check out her comments by clicking here.
Special thanks to Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture for the quotes.