WWE’s Triple H’s Heart Failed—but a New Outlook Emerged: ‘Look at Life Differently’

Triple H is opening up about the life-changing health scare that almost ended everything—and how he now sees it as a blessing.

The WWE executive, whose real name is Paul Levesque, nearly died in 2021 after suffering from viral pneumonia and a cardiac event caused by a genetic heart condition. 

He now lives with a defibrillator permanently in his chest.

In an emotional episode of his wife, Stephanie McMahon's podcast, Stephanie’s Places, Levesque reflected on the experience.

“In this really weird, f--ked up way, my heart issue was a gift,” he said. “It made me see things differently, look at life differently.”

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Stephanie, visibly moved, admitted she had “never heard” him say that before, then Levesque pulled out a coin from his pocket—a symbolic gift from his wife.

“You gave it to me. Memento Mori. You can die at any second,” he said. “Basically saying, don’t get caught up in all the bulls--t. Life is f--king fleeting—it can all go away in an instant.”

After his health scare, Levesque officially retired from in-ring competition.

"I will never wrestle again. First of all, I have a defibrillator in my chest, which, you know, probably not a good idea to get zapped on live TV," he told ESPN’s First Take. 

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The 14-time world champion recalled how the illness escalated: “My lungs were inflamed... it got worse when I got home. My wife saw blood in what I was coughing up, and I went to get checked.”

Doctors had diagnosed him with severe heart failure and told him he was “nose-diving.”

"I was at the one-yard line of where you don’t want to be—for your family and your future," he added.