Ronda Rousey in grovelling apology ’11 years too late’ as UFC and WWE icon says ‘I deserve to be hated’
RONDA ROUSEY has finally issued a grovelling apology for sharing a Sandy Hook conspiracy theory video.
The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion retweeted a video that suggested the tragic school shooting was a government conspiracy eleven years ago.
The former WWE star was bombarded with messages reminding her of her role in sharing the dangerous conspiracy during a recent Ask Me Anything on Reddit.
And the deluge of criticism prompted her to issue a belated apology for her actions.
She wrote: “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.
“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 realised 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 one in the first place.
“I drafted a thousandth apology to include in my last memoir, but my publisher begged me to take it out, saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good.
“So I convinced myself that apologising 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 bull**** by it being brought up again just so I could try to shake the label of being a ‘Sandy Hook truther.'”
Rousey admits her sharing of the video would have contributed to the immeasurable pain suffered by the loved ones of the 20 children and six adults who died during the tragic shooting in December 2012.
She continued: “But honestly I deserve to be hated, labelled, detested, resented and worse for it.
“I deserve to lose out on every opportunity, I should have been cancelled, I would have deserved it. I still do.
“I apologise 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 also had a message for those who have fallen down the “black hole” of conspiracy theories on the internet.
“And to anyone that’s fallen down the black hole of bull****,” she continued.
“It doesn’t make you edgy, or an independent thinker, you’re not doing your due diligence entertaining every possibility by digesting these conspiracies.
“They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable and isolated. You’re doing nothing but hurting others and yourself.
“Regardless of how many bridges you’ve burned over it, stop digging yourself a deeper hole.
“Don’t get wrapped up in the sunk cost fallacy, no matter how long you’ve gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.”
Former long-reigning 135lbs champion Rousey walked away from mixed martial arts following her 48-second TKO loss to future Hall-of-Famer Amanda Nunes in December 2016.
That paved the way for a 2017 transition to the WWE, where she became a two-time Smackdown Women’s champion.
She left wrestling‘s top promotion last summer but has made sporadic appearances on the independent circuit.