I will be closing my Microsoft email account.

My old email got stolen by my ex-wife, so I closed it...but now I cannot access my 20+ year old gamertag, SMaRtguy381983 with the original email being *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Was the old email a Microsoft email on your Microsoft account?

If so, then when you closed the Microsoft email you also in turn closed the Xbox account.

The Microsoft email IS the Microsoft account which in turn IS your Xbox account (gamertag) . They are all one in the same.

A Microsoft account is for all Microsoft services so if you close it your email you close it for everything

A bot is attempting to steal your account, you need to change your password and make sure to log out of all your current connections so that the token is refreshed

You should go to the security section of your account and report this problem so that it can be investigated

https://account.microsoft.com

Hi TW1NKY1,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Xbox Community. I'm sorry to hear that you're closing your Microsoft account. Closing a Microsoft account means you won't be able to use it to sign in to any Microsoft products or services, including Outlook.com or Hotmail, OneDrive, Xbox, Skype, Office or Microsoft 365, Rewards and Microsoft Certification. You will also lose access to any saved BitLocker recovery keys.

When you close a Microsoft account, for whatever reason, Microsoft wants to make sure of two things:

1. That it's really you, not someone else trying to close your account.

2. That you're not leaving anything important behind that you're going to need later.

If you're sure, follow these steps to close your account:

Sign in to start closing your Microsoft personal account.

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2272280

Notes:

To close an account, you'll need to be able to sign in. If you can't sign into your Microsoft account, use the Sign-in helper from this link:

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2288422

If you forgot your account info and had to reset your security info, you must wait 60 days before closing your account.

If you're prompted to sign in and/or verify your account, follow the instructions.

Check that the page shows the correct Microsoft account, and then click Next.

Read the list and click the checkboxes to acknowledge you've read each item.

Choose to have the re-open window set to 30 or 60 days.

In the Select a reason drop-down list, choose an explanation for why you're closing the account.

Click Mark account for closure.

Regards,

Alvaro

I just closed that email account in Microsoft. Now, I need to see if I can open my other (original) microsoft account using my old email, right?

There is no workarounds if you want to re-use an email from a locked account (locked for break ToS, if it was deleted for inactivity that's not the case)

The email is blacklisted and can't be re-use.

Also, in case that the email can be re-usable. That is not going to give you the content associated to that email