Lilian Garcia Facts You Need To Know

As the longtime ring announcer of WWE, Lilian Garcia has become recognized as the voice that has introduced many of wrestling’s most historic moments.

In addition to announcing, Lilian is an accomplished vocalist. Prior to many WWE shows, she performed stirring renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She has also opened up for many professional sports teams, including the New York Jets and Phoenix Suns. The popularity of her amazing voice eventually led to the release of her album, ¡Quiero Vivir!, in 2007.

Given her beauty and charisma, it was only a matter of time before Lilian caught the eye of a WWE Superstar. In May 2005, the inevitable happened when Viscera proclaimed his love for the sexy songstress. Lilian and Viscera didn’t look like a typical couple, but they shared a deep connection. Or so Lilian thought. The relationship eventually crumbled when Viscera chose The Godfather’s ladies over her.

After a two-year hiatus, Lilian returned to WWE in December 2011. For nearly five years, her angelic voice remained synonymous with the organization. Though her second stint with WWE concluded in 2016, she returned for a few big moments, such as the first Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania (WrestleMania 34) and the first all-women’s WWE pay-per-view event, WWE Evolution (both events took place in 2018).

Fast Facts On Lilian Garcia

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Birth name: Lilian Garcia‘s birth name is Lilian Annette Garcia.

Born: Lilian Garcia was born on August 19, 1966 (age 51), in Madrid, Spain.

Ring name: Throughout her career in WWE, Lilian Garcia has been known as Lilian Garcia.

Height: Lilian Garcia’s estimated height is 5 feet 7 inches. WWE does not bill Garcia’s height, nor has she made it public.

Weight: Lilian Garcia’s estimated weight is 110 pounds. WWE does not bill Garcia’s weight, nor has she made it public.

Billed from: During Lilian Garcia’s first tenure in WWE (1999 through 2009), the company billed her from New York City, which is where she was living at the time. When she returned in 2011, WWE billed her from Los Angeles, California since she lived near there. WWE now bills Garcia from her birthplace of Madrid, Spain.

WWE debut: Lilian Garcia made her WWE debut on August 23, 1999 — then known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) — on Raw Is War in Ames, Iowa.

Residence: Lilian Garcia lives in Marina del Rey, California.

Alma mater: Lilian Garcia attended the University of South Carolina, graduating cum laude in 1988.

Spouse: Lilian Garcia’s husband is Christopher Jozeph, who she married on September 28, 2009, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Find Lilian Garcia online: Visit Lilian Garcia’s official website at LilianGarcia.com. You can also find her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

For Your Information

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You Won’t Believe Lilian Garcia’s Age

As hard as it is to believe, but Lilian Garcia is 51 years old!

The longtime WWE ring announcer’s widely listed birth date of August 19, 1973, is inaccurate since she was actually born on August 19, 1966.

According to a 2008 magazine article on Garcia, she graduated from Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina in 1984. She then graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in film production.

Garcia was a top ten finalist in the 1985 Miss South Carolina beauty pageant. She said before the competition that there was a story in a local newspaper alleging that the pageant got fixed for her to win. Her sister, Dalia, won in 1983, making her the first Hispanic to win the pageant. According to Garcia, the newspaper claimed that the judges wanted her to win to have the first pair of sisters win the competition. She tried to sue the newspaper, but could not prove libel.

“I knew that I would have won if it wasn’t for the scandal,” Garcia said, who credits pageants for their ability to boost self-confidence. “I still believe in the pageant system.”

Garcia declined to give her age then but has since become more forthcoming. During a June 2015 interview with the syndicated hot talk radio show Rover’s Morning Glory, she revealed her feelings on the subject.

Rover, the show’s host, asked Garcia, “How old are you now, Lilian? I know you’re not supposed to ask a woman her age.”

Garcia responded, “I have no problem with that whatsoever. In fact, I like it when people talk about this.”

After being pressed again to give her age, Garcia said, “How old do you think I am?”

Rover responded, “28!”

She replied, “Ah, yeah right! Add 20 years to that! Seriously, I’m 48.”

Garcia continued, “I like talking about that because I feel that too many people put emphasis on a number, and on age. I think we all age differently, and bottom line is if I died tomorrow, they wouldn’t say how old, they’d say how young. And so I’ve always said, ‘If I’m young dead, I am young alive.'”

Rover then asked Garcia, “Do you ever get worried that they’re going to think, ‘You know, Lilian’s getting a little long in the tooth [Garcia laughs]. We need some 22-year-old hot piece of ass in here.’ Does that ever cross your mind?”

Garcia replied, “You know, I can’t focus on that. I can only go out there and do my job and do the best. I know that I’ve got a lot still to offer. I think it’s wonderful that WWE has allowed me to be there as long as I am. I think it says a lot for that organization as well to not be so worried about a number, and women, and being, you know, behind that. I’ve been the longest-running Diva there, and I’m very proud of my work there and I love working with this company.”

She continued, “I think it’s great, you know, whoever’s coming up. I just don’t look at people as numbers and if that person’s new and they’re 20-something-years-old. They can offer something at 20, but I can offer something in my 40s.”

She Originally Left WWE To Get Married

One week after emotionally saying goodbye to members of the WWE Universe, Lilian Garcia married her current husband, Christopher Jozeph, a Canadian-born men’s contemporary fashion designer and wardrobe stylist, on September 28, 2009, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. It was her second marriage after getting divorced earlier in the decade.

“I’m officially married!” Garcia announced on Twitter. “Here is our 1st photo as Mr & Mrs! 1 chapter closed lst wk, another started tonight.”

Garcia attributed her decision to leave WWE to spend more time with her husband and family.

“When my contract was up, I was like, ‘Do I sign on for a new contract, or do I really want to take the time to be with my family and my new husband?’ And I just made that decision that it was time,” Garcia revealed in 2010 during an interview with Monday Night Mayhem.

She elaborated further on her decision to leave WWE in a 2012 interview with ESPN Deportes.

“I decided to leave the company because I considered it a closed chapter in my life. I wasn’t tired of wrestling. In fact, during my absence, I kept watching WWE programs. But the reason for my departure was that I was going to get married,” Garcia said.

“And I was also somewhat tired since I was there 10 years without taking a break. People don’t know what those in wrestling sacrifice. We are working 52 weeks of the year, we never stop. And I didn’t want to start my marriage all the time on the road without my husband. So I decided to leave. And a week later I got married.”

Garcia made another big change in her life the following year as both she and her husband moved from New York City to their current residence of Los Angeles, California.

“After I left [WWE] on the 21st of September [2009], I got married on the 28th of September, which was on a Monday, so it was ironic that I got married on a Monday. I went on a long amazing honeymoon and spent time with the family,” Garcia told Monday Night Mayhem.

“I did some work in Los Angeles, and a lot of doors starting opening up for me in L.A. So we made the decision to move to Los Angeles from New York, and we left in May [2010]. It’s just a fresh start and a new chapter in my life.”

This thankfully became a two-year sabbatical as Garcia’s angelic voice returned to WWE in December 2011 for SmackDown.

The Rock Had A Major Influence On Her Career

While high school teachers and classmates of Lilian Garcia knew she could sing, it wasn’t until Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson found out she could that her music career began to blossom.

“The Rock likes to sing, too, and he found out I could sing,” Garcia said during an interview with the Miami Herald in 2011.

“I was talking to him one day, and the national anthem came up as a subject. I said, ‘Yeah, I sang the national anthem at my high school graduation.’ There was 600 people in the auditorium. I was in drama in high school, and I always sang in high school. So people there knew me as a singer.

“So he goes, ‘Wow. We actually play the national anthem [at house shows]; it’s always an instrumental [recording] that plays before we go out.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to talk to the agent, and we should get you to sing the national anthem.'”

“It was February 11, 2000, and I was doing my first live event [house show] because I had only done Raw, and we were in Denver. Rock mentioned it to one of the agents, and they had me sing it there that night. It went over so well that the agent had me do it that whole weekend — Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

“By Monday morning, Vince McMahon heard about it, and he mentioned it at the meeting. He said, ‘So I hear that someone took the house down and can sing. I’ve got to see it for myself. So I want you to sing it tonight.'” It was in San Jose for Raw on February 14 on Valentine’s Day 2000, and I sang it ever since.”

The Rock Electrifies Lilian Garcia

Fans will remember The People’s Elbow, The People’s Eyebrow, and The People’s Champion, but one of the most entertaining segments featuring The Rock brought members of the WWE Universe to a whole new level and it involved Lilian Garcia.

In one of his frequent attempts to make the beautiful ring announcer blush, here is what “The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment” said to her on SmackDown! on September 4, 2001.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa. Lilian. Lilian. You need to let your feelings go. The Rock knows you have feelings for him. The Rock knows that you think about The Rock. The Rock knows that you get that funny feeling in the bottom of your stomach, Lilian. The Rock knows that each and every single time you go right out there in the middle of The People’s Ring and you ring announce, you think about The Rock looking at you.

“Admit it, Lilian, that you go to bed every single night dreaming about marrying The Rock. Dreaming of one day to become Mrs. Lilian Rockcia.

“Admit it, Lilian, you get wet … with perspiration, standing this close to The Rock.

“Now, Lilian, The Rock knows how you feel about pie. But how do you feel about strudel? Lilian, would you like to try some of The Rock’s strudel?”

You can relive this amazing segment on the WWE Network, or here!

She Was Stripped To Her Underwear On Raw

Every Monday night on Raw, WWE treats fans with the most unforgettable experiences and the night after WrestleMania 23 was no different. On this night, Lilian Garcia got stripped to her underwear!

Two decades after WrestleMania III broke the indoor attendance record, WWE’s crown jewel returned to Detroit in 2007 to shatter yet another record when 80,103 fans packed Ford Field for WrestleMania 23. Never before had so many people filled the venue for a single event and they were all there to see Donald Trump shave Vince McMahon‘s head in the middle of the ring.

Dubbed “The Battle of the Billionaires,” Bobby Lashley, with Trump in his corner, faced Umaga, with McMahon in his corner. The losing billionaire would be forced to have his head shaved bald.

The loser was Vince McMahon.

Umaga was on the receiving end of a Stunner from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin — Austin was serving as the Special Guest Referee for the match — and then a spear from Lashley. “The Dominator,” as Lashley was known, pinned Umaga to seal McMahon’s fate. He tried to escape, but “Stone Cold” caught his long-time rival, and he shaved McMahon bald with help from Trump and Lashley.

After losing his hair at “The Battle of the Billionaires” against Trump, McMahon declared the following night on Raw that he would make life a living hell for Lashley. Not one to back down from a threat and finding great humor in his handiwork, Lashley continued to humiliate McMahon by taking off his hat to show his chrome dome. And fans couldn’t believe what happened next!

Garcia was standing in the middle of the ring and wearing a long blue satin frilled skirt. This led Lashley to rip off the WWE Diva’s skirt, which to her embarrassment, exposed her panties.

The segment caused a surge in online searches for the sexy songstress and ring announcer. The day after the show, “Lilian Garcia” was the fourth most searched-for term on Yahoo.com.

When McMahon hid underneath Garcia’s skirt, play-by-play announcer Jim Ross asked, “Is he in no man’s land?” This led some fans to think he was alluding to a long-standing rumor that Garcia is a lesbian. Ross, however, denied it.

Responding to a fan who asked if Garcia is a lesbian, Ross wrote on his official website, “James- Perhaps you should be a detective. I have never heard that Lilian Garcia was a lesbian! Good grief the wrestling internet can be brutal! Lilian is not a lesbian, but if she were what would it matter? I know that Lilian was married and is now dating a guy. My “No Man’s Land” remark Monday night was a cliché’ that implied Mr. McMahon had not been invited to reside where he was at the moment.”

So what did McMahon think about having his head shaved bald?

“Getting my head shaved was the right thing to do,” McMahon said in an interview published in the WWE 50 book.

“There was a lot of talk about Donald and his hair at the time, so it made some sense to me from a promotional standpoint. Donald’s hair versus my hair and there was always the chance that Donald would have his hair cut or head shaved; the public wasn’t too sure one way or the other. They thought they had it figured out, but they weren’t too sure. I would do anything for the business, but I didn’t realize that I have to be the ugliest bald-headed man in the world.”

He continued, “I didn’t realize at the time, but when I looked in the mirror, I saw my head was misshapen. My head has a point in the back of it. What the hell is that? And I have knots from various fights and stuff. I’ve got knots all over the back of my head, more on one side than the other. It’s just deformed looking, and when I looked in the mirror I said, ‘Oh my god, you are one ugly human being. What have you done to yourself?'”

She Left WWE To Care For Her Sick Father

Lilian Garcia stunned fans on August 1, 2016, when she announced that she was leaving WWE to take care of her ailing father. He was battling two different types of cancer — bladder cancer and multiple myeloma — and she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.

She explained her heartbreaking decision in a post on social media.

Garcia wrote, “I’ve been getting a lot of tweets and messages asking where I have been and if I’m coming back to WWE, so I wanted to let you know what has been going on and why I have been silent. I’ve been through so many emotions lately that they literally have kept me up at night. As most of you know, my father has been battling with two different types of cancer. He hasn’t been doing as well as we hoped, THEREFORE, I will not be traveling weekly with WWE any longer. I will be looking to take on work closer to where I live so that I don’t have to be on the road weekly away from him. He truly needs me, and I need this time with him. I ask that you please continue prayers for my father and my family.

“It has been a magical 15-year career at WWE, and WWE Universe, I can’t thank you enough for all your love and support! I felt you every step of the way! I also want to thank the amazing WWE Superstars, whom many of them have become my friends! You are an incredible group of people with SO much talent! It has been such an honor to introduce you to the ring and watch your superior athleticism week after week. Thank you to the crew & production staff on the road and in the offices. I’ve seen you work so hard! You really are the glue that keeps it all together!

“Lastly, thank you WWE for this incredible ride that I never wanted to get off. I’ve had experiences beyond my imagination. I thank you for not only allowing me to use my voice as an announcer but also sharing it to sing around the world. What an honor! I will cherish the memories forever.

“This is not goodbye as I will ALWAYS be part of the WWE family & hope you all will follow me on social media to share in my next chapter. I thank you & I love you!!”

The following week, Garcia elaborated on her decision to part ways with WWE during an interview on The Tomorrow Show with Keven Undergaro.

She explained, “Being at WWE is no longer an option. Being on road, skipping work, that’s never been me … you just can’t call in sick or take a leave of absence there, it just doesn’t happen. So it’s the right time for me to be gone from WWE for sure. I can spend way more time with him, which is priceless.”

Garcia said her dad felt guilty about her decision to leave WWE and that she missed it tremendously.

“My dad feels really super guilty about this. He feels like everything that’s done, he feels like, I mean I’ve been at WWE for 15 [years],” Garcia said.

“So he’s feeling so bad and so responsible for this because I missed work for so many days and because I’m not there and I just keep telling him, ‘I want to be here, I want to be here for you.’ And I can’t even imagine being on the road right now. If I was still there, my heart. I would literally take off and be on a plane and be like, ‘What the hell, I shouldn’t be on a plane right now.'”

She continued, “I miss the fans tremendously, I miss the show, I miss everybody I work with. I wish I would’ve even gotten to say goodbye, I didn’t even get to say goodbye. It was just these decisions that were happening so quick and everything. But I do have to say one thing. WWE fans are incredible.”

On December 14, 2016, Garcia made a one-night return to WWE at Tribute to the Troops where she kicked off the show with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” She dedicated the performance to her father and watched it with him on television when the show aired on the USA Network the following night.

Sadly, on December 26, 2016, Garcia announced the death of her father.

“On Christmas Day, heaven welcomed an extraordinary angel in my father, U.S. Army Retired Lt Colonel – Eduardo Garcia,” Garcia wrote on Instagram and Facebook along with photos featuring her father and other family members.

“My father fought the battle of his life against terminal cancer giving it all that he had. He was a true soldier to the very end,” she continued, noting the cause of death. “I’ve been questioning why my dad had to go on Christmas day but this morning, I realized what a truly special gift it was. My father loved Christ, so to go on Christ’s birthday is the biggest blessing ever!”

To close, Lilian thanked fans for all their love and support and offered a charity to give to in Eduardo’s name.

“To honor him, we ask that, if your heart chooses, to please donate to Fisherhouse.org #fisherhouse. Their mission is to provide a network of comfort homes where military and veterans’ families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment. As a veteran, my father saw the importance of helping soldiers and their families who weren’t quite as fortunate as him, so my family is committed to continuing his cause,” Garcia said before leaving one last goodbye.

“Thank you dad for the honor and privilege of being your daughter and for the endless love you gave me. I already miss you so much but know that you will forever be in my heart! I salute you sir! We toast to you, our true inspiration! Te amo papa!”