What's WWE Diva Sunny's Life In Prison Like?
WWE wrestler Tammy Sytch — aka, "Sunny" — rose to prominence in the 1990s as one of the sport's most well-known faces. While she wasn't a wrestler herself, she managed wrestlers like the Bodydonnas, The Smoking Gunns, and the Godwinns, who flourished under her. Elevated by a combination of charisma and good looks, she wound up getting lots of air time announcing, commentating, hosting, and so forth. On these merits alone, and without having wrestled a match in her life, she was even inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Come 2022, however, Sytch's life took a dramatic turn for the worse. As Inside the Ropes explains, that year she was brought up on multiple DUI-related charges, including DUI manslaughter for causing the death of 75-year-old Julian Lasseter in Florida. AP News reports that she'd been driving with four times the legal blood alcohol limit in her body, tested positive for cannabis, and also had an open bottle of vodka in her car. She'd also been driving with a suspended license, as she'd already been arrested multiple times in Pennsylvania for the same kind of actions. In November 2023 she was sentenced to 17 years in prison for her crimes.
Since getting to prison life hasn't been too fantastic for Sunny. She's been experiencing some serious, even life-threatening health problems related to a blood clot in her leg. She's also found it hard to be without company, at least when it comes to issues of intimacy.
Life-threatening health problems
Tammy "Sunny" Sytch's prison health problems started when her leg swelled up sometime after heading to Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Florida, a female-only facility with a capacity of about 1,000. Sunny said that staff at the prison ignored her for weeks regarding her leg, which looked like "somebody put a bicycle tire pump on it and just inflated it twice the size," per TMZ Sports. She stated that she could "barely walk," and that medical tests revealed that she'd suffered a blood clot that required taking blood thinners.
WebMD lists numerous factors that can lead to the development of blood clots, such as obesity, sitting too long, smoking, high cholesterol, etc. Blood clots can be painful, flesh can change colors, and blood clots can be fatal if a piece of the clot breaks off and travels to the brain. As far as we know Sunny hasn't experienced anything so severe, but the risk is still there. To make matters more complicated, Sunny told TMZ that her husband Chris Candido died of a blood clot in 2005, which has made things that much harder for her.
While we don't know details about the medical care at Lowell Correctional Institution, the Florida Department of Corrections website says that it provides "comprehensive" medical, dental, and mental health-related care in its facilities. It partners with correctional healthcare specialists Centurion to do so, who provide prison healthcare in 15 states.
A lonely prison celebrity life
Without getting into details better left to tabloids and tasteless speculation, Tammy "Sunny" Sytch appeared on the Bird Calls podcast to talk about life in prison, particularly when it comes to intimacy. As Fox News quotes, Sunny bemoaned the lack of male companionship behind bars, saying, "I love men, but when you're here you really don't have an option. If you want any kind of affection or connection with anyone, it's a girl-girl thing, you have no choice." However, she said that thus far no one has been "up to par for me," and so she was waiting for "somebody of quality." Speaking more bluntly, she also said, "It's like you become a virgin again, it's insane."
As a semi-celebrity, however, Sytch has gotten attention of a different type behind bars. Much of this attention has come in the form of asking her to sign personal possessions — even her own stuff from when she moved to Lowell Correctional Institution, like her county ID card. One person, she said, "had the b**** to ask me for my underwear, to sign my underwear, so she can bring it home and sell it on eBay." Sunny says that she said no.
Besides these kinds of encounters, we can assume that Sytch's life in prison proceeds much like many other prison lives, following strict schedules, maybe taking vocational classes, undergoing substance abuse programs, and so forth — all of which the Florida Department of Corrections says it offers.