Daniel Cormier has never been a stranger to tragedy, but losing his three-month-old daughter is a pain the UFC Hall of Famer says he lives with every day.
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The former UFC double champion opened up about the heartbreaking loss of his daughter, Kaedyn Imry Cormier, in a recent interview, saying how the tragedy changed his understanding of the pain that his own mother felt when his father passed away.
“It’s the worst,” he told ALF Global. “It’s easily the worst part of my life.
“You know, for a kid to not get a chance to live, especially when, especially when like her mom was trying to do what she thought was best for her, and it really does bother me every day.”
Kaedyn was only three and a half months old when she was killed in a tragic car accident on June 14, 2003, near Austin, Texas. A semi-truck rear-ended the car she was riding in, and despite being securely strapped in her seat, Kaedyn was the only person killed in the collision.
And back then, Daniel Cormier was just a 23-year-old man. So, dealing with such a situation exposed him to a new level of pain.
“Like, I don’t think it’s ever gonna not bother me,” he said in the interview. “My daughter was only three and a half months old, and she got into the car she (his wife) was driving and got hit, rear-ended by an 18-wheeler. And she was like the only person that died.
“So, I told you earlier that I never understood that pain that my mom felt when she screamed, when my father passed away, until that. Because we shouldn’t have to bury our children, especially when you’re like as young as I was, 23 years old, and there was just so much life for her to live, and when I think about like the life I would have given her.”
Over two decades later, the pain has not disappeared. Daniel Cormier revealed that he thinks about Kaedyn every day, and he still has pictures of his daughter around in his home.
“I love my kids so much that I could never imagine life without them. And I just like always think about how good her life would have been.
“Because my daughter would have seen me through the Olympics all the way to fighting and all these things, you know? So it’s just like there was such a big life for her to live and she didn’t really get to live it.”
Kaedyn Cormier would be 23 years old if she were alive. While it is often said that time heals all wounds, the former UFC double champion doesn’t believe this is the case with such grief.
“Time made it manageable,” he explained. “And an extremely busy life made it manageable.”
Following the tragedy, Daniel Cormier pushed himself into wrestling, pursuing Olympic and world championship goals while simultaneously working with sports psychologists and psychiatrists to help him process what had happened.
The UFC legend’s biological father was murdered when he was seven years old. His stepfather, Percy Benoit, who raised ‘DC’ from the age of three and whom Daniel Cormier always regarded and referred to as his true dad, died exactly one week after the former Olympian’s defeat to Stipe Miocic in 2019.
Daniel Cormier’s mother, Audrey Ann Cormier-Benoit, aka his “Momma Bear,” passed away in 2022 at the age of 79. But despite it all, ‘DC’ still struggles to handle death.
“I can’t handle death now,” he admitted. “Like my mom passed a few years ago and two years ago, and it still f—- me up.
“My dad passed after I lost to Stipe one week. Still f—- me up. S— don’t get better, you know, like, not when it matters that much. You just learn how to deal with it.”
Daniel Cormier overcame some of these tragedies to become a two-division UFC champion, capturing the heavyweight belt in 2018 and retiring in 2020. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2022 and has continued to be a significant voice on UFC broadcasts.
