Lilian Garcia leaving WWE

After an absence earlier this year caused speculation about her employment with the company, Lilian Garcia will officially be leaving WWE to help take care of her ailing father.

The ring announcer posted on Instagram this afternoon that she will no longer be traveling weekly with WWE and will look for work closer to home.

She began her career with WWE in 1999 and has had a lengthy stay in her role as ring announcer while occasionally participating in other capacities. Garcia originally left WWE in 2009 before returning in 2011. She has been a constant on WWE broadcasts for the better part of the last 17 years.

Garcia has been sporadically absent from shows this year to care for her father who is fighting two different types of cancer, and is now leaving her role in WWE so she can stay closer to home and have time to spend with him.

Garcia posted the following on Instagram:

“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.”