‘Was Heavily Bullied at School’: Michelle Wie West Shares Heartbreaking Truth Behind Childhood Stardom

Becoming a child prodigy in golf at 10 and being named the ‘Woman Tiger Woods‘ came with a lot of stress. The then-young golf prodigy seemed to have handled all that with a lot of grace and poise—at least, that’s what it looked like from the outside. However, her life as a kid and a golfer was not a cakewalk. Now, as she expects to become a mother for the second time, the 5-time LPGA Tour winner narrated what her childhood was like.

At the Pablo Tarre Finds Out podcast, the host told the veteran pro that she was probably one of the most normal child celebrities out there. Humbled by the compliment, West gave credit to her parents and explained that, despite gaining popularity in the golf world, they kept her life “normal.” Despite her success, West was going to school, hanging out with her friends and just being a normal kid.

Tarre then asked the 34-year-old about her personality at the age of 10. West revealed the sad truth behind her success. She said, “I felt like, literally, I was fractured. My soul was fractured.” The former pro further explained that it was because she was “cocky” on the course but at school, she donned a different personality. West recounted that she was admitted to a new school when she was 10 and said, “I was heavily bullied.” So much so that she ate her lunch in the bathroom stall to stay away from all the attention she received.

West remembered not being confident because she was not like other children. She was taller and heavier than everybody else, at 5 feet 7 and 175 lbs. Perhaps that further diminished her confidence as she described her past self, saying, “I was super not confident, awkward.” Amidst her growing success on the golf course and, on the other hand, constant bullying at school, West also recalled another dilemma she faced as a child prodigy.

 Michelle Wie West remembers juggling two worlds at once

Michelle Wie West tried to be as normal as she could. Unlike many celebrity children, she was not homeschooled. And coming from an Asian family, West told Tarre that her parents wanted her to pursue academics, despite being a golf child prodigy. All of this did help West maintain friendships and live a life of normalcy.

However, the side effect was that West was torn between two different lives. She said, “I grew up with this dual life.” On the one hand, she has been battling against “way older superhero women” at the age of 13. But at school, West recalls, “I was just the dumb kid that I usually am.”

Even though the 5-time LPGA Tour winner was given the status of a child prodigy and the next big thing in women’s golf, it was not all rainbows and sunshine for her to lead a successful career when most children had not yet figured out what they wanted to pursue.

After two decades, West could share the unpleasant times she experienced and have fun talking about them. But being athletically a unit on the greens and a kid at the same time did put her in a dilemma she could not solve.