Dana
White has opened up about his contentious relationship with his
late mother, June, and the personal attacks she made against him in
an unauthorized biography.
Speaking on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast, the
Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO recalled how a series of
emails from his mother escalated a family dispute that ultimately
ended their relationship.
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Dana White details the emails that fractured his relationship
with mother June White
White recalled one incident that marked the beginning of the end of
his relationship with his mother, June, who raised him and his
sister, Kelly, as a single mother.
“I was on a trip one time, you know this was before—You know, I
didn’t have e-mails and all that sh*t on the road, and I was with
Lorenzo Fertitta, my partner, and we were in London for, like, two
weeks,” White recalled. “And when I got back, I checked my e-mails,
and I have a bunch of e-mails from [June] threatening me. ‘You’re
going to send me this much money. You have two options: You can
give me this all upfront or you can pay me payments over the next
f*cking whatever, I’m looking to buy a bar…’ or whatever it was.
She wasn’t getting responses because I was in London. Then the
e-mails started getting nastier and nastier and nastier by the end
and I just f*cking blew up and that was the beginning of the end
with me and her.”
White was estranged from his parents and revealed in a 2023
interview with Piers Morgan that both had recently died. He
acknowledged that his mother’s book affected him at the time but
said he does not like speaking negatively about his parents.
“I don’t go on shows to speak negatively about my mother,” White
said. “I was telling you earlier, I wouldn’t change anything.
People say, ‘Do you think you are who you are today because of your
parents?’ Absolutely, 100%. You know, good, bad, whatever, however
you want to look at it. My parents pass away, I don’t want to tell
bad stories about my parents, but that’s one of the grossest, most
disgusting things that you couldn’t even imagine possible until it
happens to you.”
Despite his estrangement from his mother, White credited her with
raising him and Kelly on her own.
“Me and my sister will talk about my mom and we’ll be like, ‘How
the f*ck did she do it?’” White said. “She was a single mom. My dad
was what he was. Single mom, worked her *ss off, did all this stuff
and she did it. She raised two kids.”