Backstage Updates On Stephanie McMahon’s WWE Hiatus, Reasons For Wanting Off, Mo

[Liz]

New details are being revealed on Stephanie McMahon taking a leave absence from her duties as WWE Chief Brand Officer.

As noted, McMahon took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon and announced that she is taking some time away from the majority of her WWE responsibilities to be with her family, beginning today, Friday. She will be back as sh said WWE is a lifelong legacy for her, and she looks forward to returning to the company that she loves after taking time off to focus on her family. You can click here to read Stephanie's full statement, along with our report on internal WWE reactions to the announcement, and more backstage notes.

In an update, WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan will reportedly oversee McMahon's duties as Chief Brand Officer while she's away, according to Wrestlenomics.

McMahon's main factors in the decision to take time off had to do with working a busy schedule for many years, and her husband's health problems. McMahon is married to WWE's Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul "Triple H" Levesque, and they have three daughters together. Triple H has also scaled back his duties with WWE following a serious cardiac event last fall. While he announced his in-ring retirement in late March, he recently returned to work some as an executive, but is still not running the day-to-day WWE NXT operations.

It was noted that at least one WWE source heard in recent weeks that McMahon's role in the company might be noted reduced soon, but the person didn't take the rumor seriously. However, this goes with the earlier report that said there had been rumblings of McMahon being less involved in WWE as of late. That report also said WWE sources have quickly shut down any potential rumors on McMahon being pushed out of her position.

WWE's business partners, which McMahon works closely with in the Chief Brand Officer role, were informed of her hiatus earlier in the afternoon before she made the announcement on social media.

It was also that WWE employees have not received an internal message about McMahon's leave of absence, as of Thursday evening. McMahon tweeted her statement but also posted it to LinkedIn. There are many people within WWE who learned of the time away when McMahon made her social media posts. It was reported earlier how McMahon's announcement came as a shock to most within the company.

It's interesting to note that McMahon's announcement comes just days after WWE was featured at the FOX and NBCUniversal Upfronts for SmackDown and RAW. This was not confirmed but it's likely that McMahon and WWE would've wanted to wait until the Upfronts took place before announcing her leave of absence since the Upfront presentations are key to selling advertising on WWE programming.

Stephanie and Triple H are both on WWE's Board of Directors, and have been since 2015. McMahon has been working for WWE full-time since graduating college, and made her on-screen debuting during the Attitude Era in the 1990s. She previously took over WWE creative in 2000, but no longer runs that division as she has been Chief Brand Officer since 2013.

Stay tuned for more on McMahon and her time away from WWE. For those who missed it, you can see her full tweet below:

https://twitter.com/StephMcMahon/status/1527386248322502670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1527386248322502670%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pwmania.com%2Fbackstage-updates-on-stephanie-mcmahons-wwe-hiatus-reasons-for-wanting-off-more