Kanye West released a long apology addressing his controversial actions and statements from the past several years of his career.

Kanye West says he experienced neurological damage following his well known 2002 car accident, which left him with a broken jaw. He revisited the crash while issuing an extensive apology published in the latest edition of The Wall Street Journal. In the statement, West claimed the injury went untreated for years and was not formally identified until 2023, which he believes ultimately resulted in his bipolar diagnosis.

“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. At the time, the focus was on the visible damage—the fracture, the swelling, and the immediate physical trauma. The deeper injury, the one inside my skull, went unnoticed,” he wrote.

He continued: “Comprehensive scans were not done, neurological exams were limited, and the possibility of a frontal-lobe injury was never raised. It wasn’t properly diagnosed until 2023. That medical oversight caused serious damage to my mental health and led to my bipolar type-1 diagnosis.”

After addressing the accident and its long term effects, West shifted his focus to apologizing to the Jewish community for repeatedly spreading antisemitic rhetoric in recent years. “I lost touch with reality,” he admitted. “Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to have someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self.”

“In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T-shirts bearing it,” he further said. “One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments - many of which I still cannot recall - that led to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body-experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”

The letter follows an earlier effort by West to address his antisemitic remarks when he met with Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto in November. At that time, he said he wanted to “take accountability.”