Why did she leave?

It doesn't get into too much detail, but there is a scene with The Champ and Annie where he tells her that she wasn't around for T.J because she wanted to go off to France and make dresses for pretty French girls. Apparently she simply went off to pursue a career in fashion design.

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Mothers do it everyday unfortunately, many without remorse. Obviously Annie felt a deep regret and sense of remorse about the whole thing which she tried to put toward the back of her mind.

I think it may have been the boxing that made her want to leave Billy. It's a very similar tale for a lot of women who marry into that sort of thing. I think it's a similar mentality that pilot's wives experience, everyday is tension ridden.

They imply that Billy has been injured in the head before and that is probably the reason he stopped boxing. I'm guessing that's around the same time Annie left. A lot of people will numb themselves to this sort of life, they try not to think about the worst possible scenario, but eventually it gets to them. Annie has a numb sentiment about her, perhaps that's just Faye Dunaway's acting but I think it was done on purpose.


Think about it...your entire life is dedicated to your husband's boxing career. Of course it isn't like most other careers where you go to work in the morning and come home when dinner is on the table. Every single match is a fight for your life, you never know if it's going to be your husband's last day. The stress of that sort of life is enough to get to anyone. Yeah, I'm sure after awhile you'd want to end it and move on with your life. They never really explain why she gave up custody of her son, but perhaps Billy was really insistent on keeping him.

That's one reason...

There's also the fact that they were obviously incompatible on just about every level.

Annie seemed to want to get away at any cost, which is probably why she gave up custody of TJ.