Mackenzie Dern has just opened up about her recent divorce proceedings, and alleged physical abuse of her ex-husband, Wesley Santos. He is a professional surfer and the pair have been together for quite some time, sharing a daughter, Moa, who was born in 2019. They split up around a year ago, shortly before her fight with Yan Xiaonan according to Dern’s recent interview. Dern sat down with Ariel Helwani on a recent edition of the MMA Hour to open up about the divorce proceedings and shared how difficult it was to compete in the cage while this was going on:
“I thought about getting out of the fight like the first month, I thought about leaving the fight but like… No, let’s do it. I’m not going to let someone else take me away from doing what I wanted to accomplish, you know? So I thought it was important when people ask me about it to stay true… For me the divorce was the biggest thing. To be going through this whole justice system and kinda being like the woman on the side of this whole thing happening. I’m going through this divorce for a camp and I’m having to prove and defend myself in the justice system, that I’m not a negligent mom because I work and that I’m not a negligent mom because I take my daughter to train with me when she’s not at school.”
Despite the difficulty that Dern experienced during her preparation for the fight, her performance against Angela Hill at UFC Vegas 73 was one of the best of her entire career. While it seems like continuing with the fight was definitely the right decision, that doesn’t change how hard the months leading up to it must have been. Mackenzie Dern went into further detail about her divorce after this, and that’s when she alleged physical abuse:
“So I feel like I’ve been having to defend myself this whole time for things that I never thought I’d have to defend myself for. To be able to talk about it, even just like abuse in the relationship and things like that. I’m a fighter you know? So what I represent, I believe what I represent for women, is that like I can defend myself, I have confidence, and all these things.”
“I was in a situation in my relationship where I couldn’t even defend myself, because I was getting, like, threatened that if I did anything, I’d be talking to the police and I could lose my daughter… I’m like ‘How am I someone who can defend myself and I’m in a situation where I can’t even defend myself?’ Like the person’s yelling at me, being aggressive with me like at my work, at home you know? Putting me in situations that I can’t even do anything because if I do something they wanna take me to the police and say that I’m, me as a fighter, I’m the one who’s being aggressive.”
This was when Helwani asked her for confirmation as to whether physical abuse happened in the relationship, and Mackenzie Dern alleged that it did, and that it was what ultimately led to their divorce. She explained a little more background information behind the decision to leave too:
“Family for me was the most important. So, I stayed in my relationship because I believed in the family, and I believe that that’s what God wanted and stuff. But there’s a certain point where you try, try and try, and things don’t change, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. And then, like I was saying, I wasn’t even able to defend myself… Like, police were getting called to the house. It was just getting out of control, and going through that in front of your daughter, you don’t want your daughter to witness that.”
This isn’t actually the first time Dern has spoken about her ex-husband either, as she previously detailed a physical altercation between him and her previous coach that led to her leaving that gym. Wesley Santos gave a prepared statement in response to the accusations according to MMAFighting:
“I am disappointed that Mackenzie chose to make public statements about our divorce, especially since it involves the custody of our beautiful daughter, Moa. Because we are in the middle of legal proceedings, I cannot comment on anything at this time, except to say that Mackenzie’s statements are false and defamatory.”
The full interview with Mackenzie Dern where she opens up about her divorce and alleges physical abuse was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of MMAFighting:
