Terry Bradshaw laid his three failed marriages side by side and saw the same pattern in each. The Hall of Fame quarterback says the common thread was him. His clinical depression diagnosis came in 1999, the same year his third marriage ended.
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“Nothing wrong with those women. They’re wonderful women. It’s me because it didn’t work,” he said on the 10% Happier with Dan Harris. “And so I had to find out what it was, and then I had to cut the chain from that, and there had to be another me to come in and fall in love with something different for me. Man, that was a great lesson.”
He tells the story in “Looking for Terry,” his first book in more than two decades. Bradshaw has been married four times. His first wife, former Miss Teenage America Melissa Babish, stayed with him less than two years. He married Olympic figure skater JoJo Starbuck in 1976, but they parted ways in 1983. His third marriage, to family attorney Charla Hopkins, ended in 1999. They have two daughters, Rachel and Erin. He married his current wife, Tammy, in 2014. He and Tammy dated for more than a decade before they married.
Terry Bradshaw said he studied the pattern. “I had to take relationships and realize that all three were alike,” he said.
The 1999 breakup brought a crisis. Bradshaw had panic attacks, crying fits, and insomnia. He was formally diagnosed with clinical depression that year and began treatment.
Terry Bradshaw’s book, Looking for Terry, was released on October 13 in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook formats. Bradshaw narrated the audiobook himself. The book has also made the New York Times bestseller list, marking his third time on the list.
In the book, Bradshaw opens up about his struggles with depression, his divorces, cancer, faith, and his difficult relationship with late Steelers coach Chuck Noll. He also talks about living with undiagnosed ADHD and dealing with anxiety attacks before he understood what was happening to him.
Bradshaw said his story can connect with younger readers who never watched him play football. He also explained why he wrote the book. “I wrote the book for me, for my kids,” Bradshaw said. “A lot of young people have no clue that I even played football.”
Terry Bradshaw led Pittsburgh to four Super Bowl titles in six seasons and was named MVP of two of those games. He now co-hosts Fox NFL Sunday.
Talking about his struggles has helped him, Bradshaw said. “The more I talked about it, the better I felt about it, the more I liked myself because I sought help,” he explained.
He has spoken about depression before, including in the HBO special Terry Bradshaw: Going Deep and on HBO’s Real Sports, where he became emotional while discussing his struggles. Some friends made fun of him afterward. But he has also met strangers who thanked him for speaking openly about depression, including people he has met in grocery stores.
In the podcast episode, Bradshaw also talks about his childhood. He grew up with ADD and spent time on his grandfather’s farm. His mother once told him he would never amount to anything. He also shared that his wife, Tammy, gave his depression a name: Roy.
Terry Bradshaw describes the book as a journey through the good and bad parts of his life. “It’s a journey filled with great events, great moments, great successes, but multiple failures,” he said.
His health struggles have gone beyond depression. Bradshaw began treatment for bladder cancer in November 2021. In March 2022, doctors removed a cancerous Merkel cell tumor from his neck. He has also had his hip and both knees replaced.
Despite these challenges, Bradshaw plans to keep working. “I want to be relevant. I want to be good. I want to continue on,” he said in an October interview with the Los Angeles Times.