UFC chief Dana White has admitted his embarrassment after slapping his wife during an altercation in Mexico on New Year's Eve.
White, 53, and his wife Anne, with whom he has three children, were partying in Cabo San Lucas on Saturday night when they began to argue. The row was captured on camera and later released to TMZ, and shows Mrs. White covering her face before her husband takes hold of her wrists. Mrs. White responds by slapping her other half before he reacts in the same way.
White later told TMZ : "My wife and I were out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve, and unfortunately that’s what happened. 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."
White has been the head of the UFC since 2001 when he was installed as president following a buy-out from Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. The promotion has long since established itself as the biggest of its kind in the world and boasts Conor McGregor as its biggest star.
White met his wife when they were at school and the couple married in 1995. They have two sons - Aidan and Dana - and a daughter, Savannah, while, in contrast to her husband, Anne keeps herself out of the media spotlight.
White continued: "There was definitely a lot of alcohol involved, but that’s no excuse. 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 apologised to each other. We’ve apologised 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. 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."
White's wife also told TMZ: "Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years. 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 apologised to each other. I just hope people will respect our privacy for the sake of our kids."
