Viral video captured UFC President Dana White hitting his wife during a physical altercation while the two were on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for New Year’s Eve.
Released to TMZ on Monday, the video showed White and his wife, Anne, arguing in what appeared to be a VIP section of a dance club. The incident began with White’s wife slapping him, to which he responded by slapping her back as people stepped in to break it up. Witnesses told TMZ that both appeared heavily intoxicated. Police said that no charges were filed. Take a look:
Dana White slapping his wife up in a night club pic.twitter.com/CAJXX1kCB7
— FullCombat (@FullCombat_) January 3, 2023
In a statement to TMZ, White said that he and his wife were focusing on their kids, who, unfortunately, have now seen the video. He also condemned men who hit their wives.
“My wife and I were out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve, and unfortunately, that’s what happened,” White said. “I’m one of the guys, you’ve heard me say for years, there’s never, ever an excuse for guy to put his hands on a woman, and now here I am on TMZ talking about it,” he said. “My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years, we’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obviously been through some s*** together, we’ve got three kids and this is one of those situations that’s horrible, I’m embarrassed, but it’s also one of those situations that right now, we’re more concerned about our kids.
“We have three kids and obviously since the video popped up, we’ve shown the kids the video. We’re more focused on our family right now,” he continued. “People are going to have opinions on this, and most of the people’s opinions would be right, especially in my case. You don’t put your hands on a woman ever. My wife and I love each other, we’ve been together for a very long time. We’ve known each other since we were very little, and this is just one of those unfortunate situations.”
White said that he and his wife reconciled afterward and that they still managed to enjoy their vacation.
UFC president Dana White is seen on stage during the UFC 272 press conference on March 03, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
“There was definitely a lot of alcohol involved, but that’s no excuse,” White said. “I literally am making no excuses for this at all. It’s never happened before. It’s the first time that it’s ever happened, and people are going to say what they’re going to say. It is what it is, and whatever people do say is deserved. I deserve it. It happened. I don’t know why it happened.
“My wife and I have apologized to each other. We’ve apologized to our kids, and this is one of those things where everybody is going to chime in. I could care less what anybody else thinks about this. Right now what we’re more concerned about are our kids and taking care of our family,” he concluded. “That was the beginning of it and the end of it. We’re still on vacation. We’re obviously best friends, she’s my wife and we had too much to drink, and whatever happened that night happened. That was it and it was done.”
Anne White backed up her husband’s claims in a separate statement to TMZ.
“Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years,” Anne said. “To say this is out of character for him is an understatement — nothing like this has ever happened before. Unfortunately, we were both drinking too much on New Year’s Eve and things got out of control, on both sides.”
“We’ve talked this through as a family and apologized to each other. I just hope people will respect our privacy for the sake of our kids,” she added.
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