In a dramatic public gesture, controversial musician Kanye West, now known as Ye, has issued a full-page apology in The Wall Street Journal for a series of antisemitic and inflammatory comments made in recent years.
The letter, titled “To Those I’ve Hurt,” represents a stark reversal from past statements where he declared himself a Nazi and praised Adolf Hitler. “I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people,” Ye wrote in the advertisement published Monday.
The artist attributed his years of erratic and offensive behavior to a combination of factors, chiefly a traumatic brain injury from a near-fatal 2002 car crash that he claims went undiagnosed until 2023, and his ongoing struggle with bipolar 1 disorder.
“Twenty-five years ago, I was in a car accident that broke my jaw and caused injury to the right frontal lobe of my brain… The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed,” he wrote. He believes this injury exacerbated his bipolar disorder, diagnosed in 2016, leading to manic episodes where he “lost touch with reality.”
Ye expressed deep regret for his actions during these episodes, stating he “gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika.” He described the behavior as an “out-of-body-experience” but insisted it “does not excuse what I did.”
The apology also extended to the Black community for his 2018 comment that slavery was “a choice.”
Ye revealed that early 2025 brought a severe four-month manic episode that led to suicidal thoughts. He credited his wife, Australian model Bianca Censori, with urging him to seek help “a few months ago” after he hit “rock bottom.”
The public letter concludes with a plea for patience: “I’m not asking for sympathy, or a free pass, though I aspire to earn your forgiveness. I write today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”
The apology comes just days before the scheduled release of his new album, *Bully*.
