Ronda Rousey issues grovelling apology for reposting Sandy Hook conspiracy tweet 11 years ago

She faced backlash at the time for her repost and issued a response which read: "I never meant to insult or hurt anyone, sorry if anyone was offended. It was not my intention in the least."

But Rousey, who last fought in the UFC in 2016, was reminded of the controversial post during a Reddit AMA earlier this week.

Several posts called for Rousey to issue a 'much better public apology' and she has now spoken out in a long post put out on social media.

Rousey claimed she 'deserves to be hated' and felt she should have been 'cancelled' before asking for forgiveness.

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"I can't say how may times I've redrafted this apology over the last 11 years," her statement began.

"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 11 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 realised 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 the 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 apologising 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 bull**** by it being brought up again just so I could try to shake the label of being a 'Sandy Hook truther'.

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"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 cancelled, I would have deserved it. I still do.

"I apologise that this came 11 years too late, but to those affected by the Sandy Hook massarce, 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.

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"I've regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die.

"And to anyone that's fallen down the black hole of bull****. 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."