Ronda Rousey apologizes for posting Sandy Hook conspiracy

Article content

Ronda Rousey is coming clean for something she says has haunted her for the past 11 years.

Article content

“I’ve regretted it every day of my life since,” the former MMA star said about sharing a Sandy Hook conspiracy theory 11 years ago on X, then known as Twitter.

Rousey, 37, shared a lengthy statement on Thursday night, saying that she is “ashamed” to have contributed to the wild narrative surrounding the school shooting.

“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.”

Article content

Article content

According to Bleacher Report, Rousey had shared a YouTube conspiracy video in January 2013, just a month after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six staffers. She captioned the post: “Extremely interesting, and must-watch.”

The post was met with outrage and she quickly deleted it, later posting “I just figure asking questions and doing research is more patriotic than blindly accepting what you’re told.”

Article content

In her apology, Rousey called the original post “the single most regrettable decision of my life … I watched a Sandy Hook conspiracy video and reposted it on Twitter.”

The fighter-turned-wrestler said that she didn’t even believe the video, but couldn’t come to grips with the truth at the time.

“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,” she wrote. “I quickly realized my mistake and took it down, but the damage was done.”

Rousey said that she has struggled to write the apology for the past 11 years and feared she could “be causing even more damage by giving it.”

She also wrote that she drafted an apology to include in her latest book, but “my publisher begged me to take it out, saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good.

Article content

“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,’” she added.

She closed the apology with a message to those who have fallen for conspiracy theories and that believing such harmful ideas doesn’t make someone “an independent thinker.”

“They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable and isolated. You’re doing nothing but hurting others and yourself,” she said. “No matter how long you’ve gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.”

Article content