Ronda Rousey says she deeply regrets amplifying a conspiracy theory that the horrific 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting that took the lives of 26 people (including 20 young school children) was a “staged” event.
Rousey took time out of her UFC schedule to give credence to the notion that the US government faked the Sandy Hook school shooting in an effort to enact stricter regulations on firearms, and that the grieving parents were actually crisis actors. Rousey called this demented conspiracy, “extremely interesting” and told her millions of social media followers that one video detailing the conspiracy was a, “must-watch.”
Earlier this week, Rousey participated in a Reddit AMA fan Q&A session that was hijacked by people asking her about Sandy Hook. She’s taken this as an opportunity to finally issue a full-throated apology, 11 years later. She claims to be haunted by the mistake ever since, takes responsibility for her actions and expresses profound remorse for the pain caused.
Rousey urges others not to fall into the trap of conspiracy theories, emphasizing that such beliefs only lead to harm and isolation.
Ronda Rousey’s Sandy Hook Apology Statement
The former WWE & UFC Champion issued the following statement on social media:
“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 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 then 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 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 bullshit by it being brought up again just so I could try to shake the label of being a “Sandy Hook truther”.
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. 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.
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. And to anyone else that’s fallen down the black hole of bullshit. 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.”
