Ex-UFC Star Ronda Rousey Apologizes for Reposting Sandy Hook Conspiracy Video After Disastrous Reddit Q&A

Former UFC star Ronda Rousey on Friday morning apologized for her previous denial of the Sandy Hook shooting following backlash during a recent Reddit Q&A.

On Tuesday, Rousey participated in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” — a Q&A session that has celebrities answer a wide variety of questions submitted by users. Unfortunately for her, that session quickly went off the rails when a large portion of the questions centered on her pushing conspiracy theories about the shooting that killed 20 children.

Early Friday morning, Rousey acknowledged those questions with an apology.

“I can’t say how many times I’ve redrafted this apology over the last 11 years,” the statement read. “How many times I’ve convinced myself it wasn’t the right time or that I’d be causing more damage by giving it. 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. 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.

“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 it in the first place.”

She claimed she intended to include an apology in her memoir, but her publisher “begged” her not to out of fear that it would do more harm than good.

“I apologize that this came 11 years too late,” she continued, “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.”

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