Ronda Rousey’s daughter is proof that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!
That’s why I’m talking privately with PEOPLE on Thursday. stars on mars At the preview event, former UFC champion and mixed martial artist daughter La’akea Makalapuaokalanipō said that the little girl, who will turn 2 in September, is chasing her.
“Oh, it’s definitely going to be tough. He doesn’t react too much to pain,” says Rousey, 36. “She fell and grazed her knee today and it’s like… She didn’t even cry. She kind of grumbled!”
“The world isn’t ready for this little girl,” Rousey jokes.
Rousey shares La’akea with her husband, Travis Browne. The couple married in August 2017 in Browne’s hometown of Hawaii and welcomed La’akea in September 2021.
Since then, Rousey has shared numerous snaps with her daughter on Instagram. But to film stars on mars Leaving La’akea – featuring a roster of “celebrities” like Lance Armstrong and Tallulah Willis competing in weekly missions in a simulated human colony on Mars.
“Being away from my baby was the most challenging thing,” Rousey says during the production of the series hosted by William Shatner. “It was really hard being apart from him and he was only 1.5 years old when I left. The cutest age and everything like that.”
Rousey says her mother’s guilt grew as filming dragged on. “I was having a better and better experience, feeling worse and worse being separated from him,” Rousey says. “And so, the mother’s guilt was increasing day by day, and I think that was more difficult than any part of the experience.”
As for how Rousey did it stars on mars, will have to wait until this show airs. But no award compares to the moment she reunited with La’akea after filming ended.
“When he saw me, he wanted to jump into my arms and then he wanted me to knock him down and run around the house with me and then pick him up,” the athlete recalls. “And it was when he finally calmed down enough for me to hold him in my arms and watch. Frozen together, it was really our celebration”
“Then that night—he sleeps in bed with us—and his little head is in my secluded area and I fell asleep hugging him that night,” Rousey recalls. “It was the most wonderful feeling after being apart for so long.”
Rousey has continued to gush about motherhood, sharing how it has changed her over the years.
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“I’m so much happier that I don’t think about myself all day anymore,” Rousey says with PEOPLE at the Scum & Villainy Cantina in Hollywood on Thursday. “I think about him all the time and focus on him and… I don’t know. Am I more considerate?
“I think the best part about it is that it has made me mentally healthier and has allowed me to stop beating myself up so much for being so interested in taking care of her.”
stars on mars It premieres June 5 on Fox.