The artist formerly known as Kanye West took out a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal in which he offered a lengthy apology for his antisemitic comments and reflected on having bipolar disorder and how it has impacted his life.
"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 ad, which is entitled "To Those I Hurt," reads. "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."
Ye wrote that, at the time, comprehensive scans were not done to assess the neurological damage of the accident. The damage he suffered wasn't "properly diagnosed" until 2023, he said, and the oversight led to mental health issues. "Bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system," he wrote. "Denial. When you're manic, you don't think you're sick. You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you're seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you're losing your grip entirely."
He added that his struggles with bipolar type-1 disorder would often have him convinced that he didn't need help.
"It makes you blind, but convinced you have insight," he continued. "You feel powerful, certain, and unstoppable. I lost touch with reality. 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 love someone who was, at times, unrecognizable. Looking back, I became detached from my true self."
He said at his worst moment, he "gravitated toward the most destructive symbol" he could find: the swastika. "One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type-1 are the disconnected moments—many of which I still cannot recall—that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out-of-body experience," he wrote. "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."
He also apologized to the Black community for his behavior over the last few years. "The Black community is, unquestionably, the foundation of who I am," he continued. "I am so sorry to have let you down. I love us. In early 2025, I fell into a four-month long manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life. As the situation became increasingly unsustainable, there were times I didn't want to be here anymore."
He added that he "found comfort" in various sub-Reddit communities, in which people shared their experiences with "manic or depressive episodes" similar to those he experienced.
"As I find my new baseline and new center through an effective regime of medication, therapy, exercise and clean living, I have newfound, much-needed clarity," he concluded. "I am pouring my energy into positive, meaningful art: music, clothing design, and other new ideas to help the world. 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."
You can read the ad, which is titled "To Those I Hurt," in full below.
Complex has reached out to Hussein Lalani, the chief financial officer of Yeezy, for comment.
Ye was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, but did not make his diagnosis public until the arrival of his 2018 album, Ye. He later claimed that it was a misdiagnosis, and suggested in 2022 that he could be autistic, something he said was professionally diagnosed in 2025.
In late 2022, Ye faced widespread backlash after he sat down for an interview with controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, during which he praised Adolf Hitler. Instead of backing down and apologizing for his comments, he doubled down and later sold t-shirts featuring the swastika and recorded a track named "Heil Hitler."
In November last year, he met with Rabbi Yoshiayao Yosef Pinto and apologized for his hateful remarks about the Jewish community.