Dana White recalls threatening emails that ended his relationship with his late mother

UFC president Dana White has spoken candidly about the collapse of his relationship with his late mother, June, revealing that a string of threatening emails demanding money ultimately ended their bond for good.

Appearing on The Diary of a CEO podcast, White described returning from a two-week trip to London with business partner Lorenzo Fertitta to find a series of escalating messages from June. “I checked my e-mails, and I have a bunch of e-mails from her threatening me,” White said. “‘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…’ 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 blew up and that was the beginning of the end with me and her.”

White had been estranged from both parents for some time before their deaths. In a 2023 interview with Piers Morgan, he confirmed that both had recently passed away. He also acknowledged that an unauthorised biography his mother published had affected him deeply, though he expressed reluctance to speak ill of her publicly.

“I don’t go on shows to speak negatively about my mother,” White said. “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 the estrangement, White was careful to acknowledge June’s sacrifices as a single parent raising him and his sister Kelly. “Me and my sister will talk about my mom and we’ll be like, ‘How the f*ck did she do it?’” he said. “She was a single mom. My dad was what he was. Single mom, worked her ass off, did all this stuff and she did it. She raised two kids.”

White also reflected on how his upbringing, however complicated, shaped the person he became. “People say, ‘Do you think you are who you are today because of your parents?’ Absolutely, 100%. Good, bad, whatever, however you want to look at it.”