Brandi Rhodes Talks Having 'Freedom' to Prioritize Daughter, 'See Motherhood Exactly How I Want'

Brandi Rhodes

Brandi Rhodes can't get enough of her new flexible lifestyle. The biggest perk? Spending as much time as she wants with her baby girl.

The professional wrestler, 38, recently spoke to PEOPLE and opened up about having the freedom to prioritize her 10-month-old daughter Liberty Iris. The new mom — who shares baby Liberty with her husband, fellow WWE star Cody Rhodes — reveals that over the past year, she's had the opportunity to experience motherhood how she wants.

"I've had many career changes that weren't really anticipated over the past year and it actually turned out to be a really great thing because through these changes I have had the ability to be like, 'You know what? I'm prioritizing my daughter,' " she tells PEOPLE.

"So we are literally just doing whatever we want. We're discovering things together, we're traveling together. I'm able to say, 'Hey, I want my baby here,' " Rhodes continues. "I've been blessed with the freedom to be able to see motherhood exactly how I want to right now and that was not always going to be the case."

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Brandi Rhodes

The athlete says Liberty has reached the age where she is becoming more active and enjoying their mother-daughter bonding experiences, including their frequent trips to Disney World. Though she's excited about Liberty having similar interests as her, Rhodes admits she's looking forward to witnessing her daughter have her own hobbies, specifically when it comes to wrestling.

Despite Liberty having two professional wrestlers as parents, Rhodes doesn't want her little girl to follow in their footsteps, noting that she hopes Liberty sees "another direction" outside of the sport and can "forge her own path."

"Of course if that's something she ends up loving and being interested in, then of course we'll go that direction and encourage her," she says. "But I really want her to know that 'Hey, just because this is what Mom and Dad did, maybe I don't have to do that at all. Maybe I'm into ice skating, maybe I'm into soccer, maybe I want to cook.' The world is literally her oyster."

"That is 100 percent why I did everything the way that I did," Rhodes adds of raising her daughter. "I wanted to have a child and in that period tell her to go explore. I don't want her to feel confined in any type of way. I want to be able to support her however I need to."

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Rhodes still believes Liberty will be athletic, joking that she's already scaring her by trying to walk and jump around the house. Because she welcomed her daughter during the "COVID baby boom," Rhodes says she's lucky to be home enough to see every small milestone Liberty reaches.

However, more time with her daughter has contributed to her anxiety as a new mom, expressing a constant fear of something happening to Liberty.

Rhodes previously opened up about experiencing postpartum depression as a new mom but now, she admits it's postpartum anxiety that has lingered and been a journey to cope with.

"The fear and the everyday worry [about Liberty] doesn't go away but the trickling effect of it does go away," she tells PEOPLE. "Of course every once in a while I'll have a thought or I'll think of something going wrong, but I'm able to rationalize it now and take a deep breath and say, 'Hey, these are all worries that are okay to have but the reality is she is safe and she's okay.' And that goes a long way."

Rhodes adds that she's just taking it day-by-day, adding, "I'm just trying to savor the moment."