‘Embarrassed’ UFC chief Dana White apologizes for slapping wife at booze-fueled New Year’s Eve party

A remorseful Dana White is apologizing for a booze-filled altercation he had with his wife of 26 years, where the UFC chief was seen striking the mother of his three children after she first slapped him.

The couple were celebrating the new year at the El Squid Roe nightclub in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and White can be seen in a video approaching his wife, Anne, who appeared to be upset. After leaning in to say something to her, Anne is seen slapping her husband in the face and he quickly retaliates with a slap to her head before others intervene.

The video, seen below from TMZ, went viral:

“My wife and I were out Saturday night on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, that is what happened,” White told TMZ in a later interview. “I am one of the guys who says there is never, ever an excuse for a 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 sh*t together,” he continued. “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.”

White, who serves as president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, said he and his wife sat down with their children and showed them the video footage, and discussed the incident.

“We’re more focused on our family right now,” he explained. “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.”

Anne White released a statement to TMZ stressing that there had never been any violence between them before this incident.

“Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years,” she 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.”

TMZ questioned Dana about reports of there being a lot of alcohol involved.

“There was definitely a lot of alcohol involved, but that’s no excuse,” he 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 just is what it is… and whatever people do say it 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. That was the beginning of it and the end of it.”

When asked if he recalls the evening, due to all the alcohol involved, Dana replied that he doesn’t remember things well.

“This is one of those situations that is horrible. I am embarrassed,” he told TMZ. “We have three kids and since the video popped up, we have shown the kids and we are more focused on our family right now.”

Tom Tillison

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