Hope Solo Reflects on “Biggest Mistake” of Her Life After DWI Arrest

Solo said her treatment experience was “both terrifying and wonderful,” adding that the day before she entered the facility, she suffered her first panic attack. She said the morning she left to start her rehab stay, her twins “waved grandma goodbye on our front lawn.”

She added: “Watching my children wave, knowing they had no idea how long I would be gone, not realizing I wouldn’t be back that night or the next day, broke my heart. I smiled and waved my hand out the window, and then I screamed when I couldn’t see them around the corner anymore.”

She and her husband invented a story for their children to explain the absence of their mother. “We decided to tell the children that mom is going fishing,” the athlete said. She added that she communicated with her family remotely during treatment.

Solo said she was one of eight women treated at the facility. When she checked in, she was drug tested and her luggage was moved and thrown into the dryer. She said she cried during their first meal together.

“Today,” she said on her podcast, “I’m grateful for my 30 days to read, think, pray, mediate, and learn.”

Solo continued, “There’s no shame in struggling with alcohol or addiction. Thank you to the wonderful men and women who taught me this.”