Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter has managed to become one of the biggest YouTube stars on the planet, but like most success stories, she’s had to overcome some major obstacles along the way.
Some go all the way back to her troubled childhood, while others happened more recently. But through it all, there’s one thing she regrets more than anything else—staying in a toxic relationship.
“My biggest regret… is staying in a toxic relationship throughout my career and seeing it get more and more toxic and not having the strength to leave it sooner,” she said.
“That was definitely my biggest regret,” she repeated.
Valkyrae was referring to a former partner she had for years who didn’t support her in the earlier stages of her career when she was still on Twitch. He laughed at her aspirations to become a full-time streamer.
Then, when her career started booming, he became jealous and started comparing his success to hers. It got to the point where she stopped telling him about her breakthroughs to keep him happy.
“It makes me wonder where would I be if I was just single, focusing on my career without being judged in my relationship when it came to career stuff and dealing with insecurities with collabing and making friends with guys,” she said.
Looking back, Valkyrae wishes she had listened to friends and family who warned her about the red flags in that relationship, but said she was blinded by the comfort and codependency.
For that reason, it took longer than she would have liked to free herself from the shackles of that toxic relationship, but it happened eventually, and she was able to spread her wings and soar.
Not even the biggest regret of her career could hold her back.
