Dana White Caught Slapping Wife At Nightclub, Says He ‘Deserves’ Whatever People Say About Him
White further added that he's "embarrassed" that it happened.
UFC President Dana White and his wife, Anne, got into a physical altercation on New Year’s Eve.
TMZ released a video on Monday that showed the incident, which took place while the couple was on vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. White can be seen talking to his wife, who is covering her face with her hands. He then grabs her wrist and she responds by slapping him in the face, which White does back.
“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. 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. 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.”
Witnesses at the nightclub said that White and his wife appeared to be heavily intoxicated before the incident, TMZ reported. White said that he and his wife reconciled afterward and continued their vacation together.
“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…
“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.”
His wife issued 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.”
There have been no reports of any charges or arrests against either of the two. Friends of the two had intervened the couple during the incident.
Neither the UFC nor Endeavor – who owns the promotion – have released a statement.