Bray Wyatt shared an emotional message for fans (Picture: WWE)

WWE superstar Bray Wyatt broke character to deliver a poignant update as his uncle Barry Windham recovers from a heart attack.

The former world champion, who rarely speaks as himself in public, shared an emotional video on Instagram while Friday Night SmackDown was still on air as he revealed the 62-year-old WWE Hall of Famer was ‘gone’ for ’10 to 20 minutes’ after losing his pulse.

In a lengthy and impactful video, Bray – whose real name is Windham Rotunda – said: ”This week, my uncle Barry Windham, he had a massive heart failure in Atlanta and he went down, and he didn’t have a pulse for 10 to 20 minutes.

‘So he was away, he was gone. I wanted to thank one specific man, Michael Todd Laylek, who was there and he gave him CPR for that entire time before everyone else, the EMTs, could get to him.

‘He stayed with him and he’s the reason that we have Barry still. He’s alive, he’s with us.’

On Friday, Bray’s sister Mika revealed their uncle was stabilised, out of the ICU, and able to walk and talk again.

Bray explained that he doesn’t often let fans see into his life away from the cameras, but he decided to do just that to reveal how thankful he is for ‘the support and the love’ they’ve shown him over the years.

He said: ‘I keep a lot of my outside life separate from anything that I do on here or in the ring. I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m incredible thankful for the support and the love I’ve received since I’ve been back and throughout my career.

Bray Wyatt spoke as himself in the poignant video (Picture: Instagram/thewindhamrotunda)

‘Wrestling has been a part of my life always, and when I was a kid I looked at my dad and my uncles and my grandfather, who were all professional wrestlers.

‘I looked at them as if they were Greek gods or something, like they couldn’t feel pain, they were immortal, they would always be just like that. As we get older and I’ve become a man myself, you start to understand that that’s just not the case. Nothing is forever.’

Barry Windham is recovering (Picture: WWE)

He pointed out that his uncle Barry has ‘given his life to his profession’, and the way people have rallied behind him with the GoFundMe set up by Bray’s sister Mika means so much to the veteran wrestler.

‘His whole life has been about this, just like mine, and he put everything into it, and I just wanna share that I’m incredibly thankful to have him back,’ he continued.

‘My sister set up a GoFundMe in his name, and you’re not obligated to share, no one’s obligated to share anything but if you could, that would be incredibly helpful.

‘And take it from me, sometimes when you’re someone like that, it’s incredibly powerful to remind them that they mean a lot to a lot of people. I hope everyone out there that’s hearing this, I hope you take this from me.

‘Be good to the ones you love. Always remind them about that, and how much they mean to you, because nothing is forever. But yeah, thank you for everything guys.’

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MORE : WWE legend Barry Windham ‘stabilised’ days after suffering heart attack: ‘There is power in prayer’

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He shared a poignant out of character video during SmackDown.