Eleven years after she shared a Sandy Hook conspiracy video on then-Twitter, former UFC fighter and actor Ronda Rousey says she’s sorry, calling it “the single most regrettable decision of my life.”
Rousey deleted the video, which suggested that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary had been staged, shortly after it was posted, telling her followers “she never meant to insult of hurt anyone.”
In a lengthy post on X (fka Twitter) Thursday night, Rousey admits she deserved to be hated and “should’ve been canceled.
“I can’t say how many times I’ve redrafted this apology over the last 11 years,” Rousey wrote. “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. 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.”
She said that “by some miracle”, the post slipped under the media’s radar and she 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 on those conspiracy videos, and selfishly inform even more people I was ignorant, self absorbed and tone deaf enough to share on in the first place.”
She said she wanted to include an apology in her last memoir Our Fight but her publisher “begged me to take it out, saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good.”
“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,” Rousey continued.
It was a recent “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit that convinced her she needed to apologize.
“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,” she wrote. “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 it.”
“I’ve regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die,” she continued.
Rousey ended her apology by reminding anyone who has “fallen down the black hole of bull***” and conspiracy theories that it “doesn’t make you edgy, or an independent thinker.”
“They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable and isolated. You’re doing nothing but hurting others and yourself,” she cautioned. “No matter how long you’ve gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.”
You can read her statement in full below.
Laura Davis is an entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to Broadway, she offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
