Current:Home > NewsFormer MMA fighter Ronda Rousey apologizes for posting Sandy Hook conspiracy online 11 years ago -消息
Former MMA fighter Ronda Rousey apologizes for posting Sandy Hook conspiracy online 11 years ago
View
Date:2025-04-17 11:36:41
Former MMA fighter and professional wrestler Ronda Rousey has issued an online apology, which she admits is “11 years too late,” for reposting a conspiracy video about the deadly 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting on social media.
Rousey, an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, said reposting the video was “the single most regrettable decision of my life” and that she didn’t even believe the video but “was so horrified at the truth that I was grasping for an alternative fiction to cling to instead.”
Rousey said she realized her mistake and quickly took down the post, but “the damage was done.” She said she was never asked about the post by the media, and she was afraid to draw attention to the video over the years. Rousey said she drafted “a thousandth apology” for her recent memoir, but a publisher urged her to take it out. She then convinced herself that apologizing would reopen an emotional wound in order to “shake the label of being a ‘Sandy Hook truther.’ ”
“But honestly I deserve to be hated, labeled, detested 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 wrote. “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 sorry for the hurt I caused.”
The issue of Rousey’s posting of the video recently came up on the platform Reddit when she invited users to ask her questions about her recently launched fundraising campaign for her first graphic novel. Some asked why she didn’t issue a strong apology for amplifying the conspiracy theory about the shooting.
After the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 20 first graders and six educators dead, falsehoods were pushed that the tragedy was a hoax. Victims’ families, who were awarded $1.5 billion by a jury in 2022 for the role conspiracy theorist Alex Jones played, have said they have been subjected to years of torment, threats and abuse by people who believed such lies.
A spokesperson for the lawyer who represents the families declined to comment on Rousey’s apology.
In her statement, Rousey said she was “remorseful and ashamed” for the pain she contributed to those affected by the massacre.
“I’ve regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die,” she wrote.
Rousey warned others about falling down the “black hole” of conspiracy theories.
“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,” she wrote. “You’re doing nothing but hurting others and yourself.”
veryGood! (86297)
Related
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- California DMV apologizes for license plate that some say mocks Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
Ranking
- Trump invites nearly all federal workers to quit now, get paid through September
- Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- 'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- Juan Soto to be introduced by Mets at Citi Field after striking record $765 million, 15
Recommendation
Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack. Personal data could be released soon
Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
Have Dry, Sensitive Skin? You Need To Add These Gentle Skincare Products to Your Routine
Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'