Love him or hate him, there's no denying that Randy Orton is one of the few WWE stars who has been a constant over the last three decades. That isn't too surprising; after all, wrestling was in Orton's blood, as he followed in the footsteps of his father, WWE Hall of Famer "Cowboy" Bob Orton, and uncle Barry Orton. Still, very few wrestlers are able to be a constant on wrestling TV for over 20 years, and Orton, who first debuted on "WWE SmackDown" as a 22 year old in 2002, has done just that. Not only that, but for most fans, he's continued to perform at a high level.. And as Orton's career has evolved, so has his desire to be a bit more open with fans regarding his personal life, sometimes with controversy resulting.
To be clear, no one would ever confuse Orton for being a closed book regarding his private life. But whereas some wrestlers, such as Orton's former Evolution stablemate Ric Flair, have incorporated their family members into storylines over the course of their careers, Orton spent the first half of his career keeping his family life separate from his wrestling one. For example, on two occasions where WWE ran an angle involving Orton and his first wife in 2009 and 2011, an actress was used in place of his wife. Orton's second marriage to Kim Orton hasn't seen the need to involve her in wrestling angles, or require an actress to play her. Regardless, it's certainly been a lot more public of a relationship, in large part because Kim herself has been a very public personality.
Now married for over ten years, Orton and Kim first met at, where else, a WWE event, at least according to the detailed description Kim gave of their first encounter during an appearance on ""The Sessions with Renee Paquette" back in early 2022. A long-time fan of Orton, Kim recalls the future WWE Hall of Famer saw her in the crowd while making his entrance, and after the match approached her at the barricade about meeting at a diner. The two exchanged information and would meet outside that diner later that night. The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, Orton and Kim saw the birth of their daughter, adding to a large house that consists of Kim's three sons from her first marriage, and Orton's daughter from his first marriage.
As their marriage has blossomed, Kim has gotten more and more limelight, at first via appearances on podcasts like "The Sessions" or "Insight with Chris Van Vliet," or social media interactions with Alexa Bliss during a storyline Orton had feuding with Bliss and Bray Wyatt in early 2021. In February 2022, however, Kim decided to create her own platform alongside Giovanna Angle, the wife of WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle, by launching the "Wives of Wrestling" podcast. Co-hosted by Jon Alba, the podcast focused on, well, the lives of Kim and Giovanna as the wives of pro wrestlers, while occasionally featuring wrestling related guests such as WWE star Nia Jax, former WWE/AEW/ROH/TNA star Maria Kanellis-Bennett, and others. After six months worth of content, the last "Wives of Wrestling" episode was released in late August 2022, and appears to be canceled, thoughAlba announced the podcast was merely on hiatus while it was being "reinvented."
