Former UFC and WWE star Ronda Rousey issued an apology for sharing a Sandy Hook conspiracy video 11 years ago.
Rousey, 37, took part in a Reddit AMA earlier this week and faced backlash from users over the controversial post over a decade after she shared and deleted the video.
After getting called out for something she thought slipped under the radar, the combat sports icon issued a lengthy apology on Friday.
‘I can’t say how many times I’ve redrafted this apology over the last 11 years,’ Rousey wrote on X. ‘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.’
‘But 11 years ago I made the single most regrettable decision of my life,’ she added. ‘I watched a Sandy Hook conspiracy video and reposted it on Twitter. 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.’
Ronda Rousey issued an apology 11 years after posting a Sandy Hook conspiracy video
Rousey was accused of boosting the baseless claim that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was staged. The tragedy, which took place in December 2012, left 20 children dead and several others injured.
Rousey shared the post in question the following month.
‘By some miracle it seemingly slipped under the media’s radar, I was never asked about it so I never spoke of it again, afraid that calling attention to it would have the opposite of the intended effect—it could increase the views of those conspiracy videos, and selfishly, inform even more people I was ignorant, self absorbed, and tone deaf enough to share one in the first place.’
Rousey noted that she attempted to issue the apology in her memoir Our Fight – which was released this year. However, she was discouraged from doing so by her publisher.
She claimed that the publisher begged her to take it out as it would overshadow the rest of the book and do more harm than good.
Rousey was slammed for making the baseless claim that the mass shooting was staged
The mass shooting that took place in December 2012 left 20 children dead and others injured
Rousey tried to issue the apology on her memoir but was advised not to 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, that I would hurt those suffering even more and possibly lead more people down the black hole of conspiracy bulls*** by it being brought up again just so I could try to shake the label of being a ‘Sandy Hook truther’.
‘But honestly I deserve to be hated, labeled, detested, resented and worse for it. 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. 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 post has gained over 1M views going live early on Friday.
