Former UFC and WWE star Ronda Rousey is apologizing for sharing a conspiracy video about the Sandy Hook tragedy.
“I can’t say how many times I’ve redrafted this apology over the last 11 years. How many times I’ve convinced myself it wasn’t the right time or that I’d be causing even more damage by giving it,” Rousey, 37, wrote in a statement shared via X early Friday, August 23, addressing a post she made in January 2013.
“But eleven years ago I made the single most regrettable decision of my life. I watched a Sandy Hook conspiracy video and reposted it on Twitter,” she continued, referring to the December 2012 elementary school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in which 26 people — including 20 children — were killed.
“I didn’t even believe it but was so horrified at the truth that I was grasping for an alternative fiction to cling to instead. I quickly realized my mistake and took it down, but the damage was done,” Rousey added, noting that her January 2013 social media post “slipped under the media’s radar.”
Rousey said she tried to issue an apology in her recently published memoir, Our Fight, but was discouraged by her publisher. “So I convinced myself that apologizing would just reopen the wound for no other reason than me selfishly trying to make myself feel better,” she wrote.
“But honestly I deserve to be hated, labeled, detested, resented and worse for it,” Rousey continued. “I deserve to lose out on every opportunity, I should have been canceled, I would have deserved it. I still do.”
“I apologize that this came 11 years too late, but to those affected by the Sandy Hook massacre, from the bottom of my heart and depth of my soul, I am so so sorry for the hurt I caused,” Rousey shared. “I can’t even begin to imagine the pain you’ve endured and words cannot describe how thoroughly remorseful and ashamed I am of myself for contributing to it. I’ve regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die.”
Rousey’s apology comes after a recent Reddit AMA with the former WWE women’s champion on the pro wrestling subreddit r/SquaredCircle was overwhelmingly flooded with questions about her historic tweet.
In July, Rousey revealed she is expecting her second child with husband Travis Browne. The couple share a daughter, La’akea Makalapuaokalanipō, 2.