Sean O’Malley has sparked outrage after he claimed that he can cheat on his wife because he “pays for everything”.
The UFC champion, 28, spoke candidly about his open relationship with his partner – Danya Gonzalez – during a recent appearance on Bradley Martyn’s Raw Talk podcast. After O’Malley claimed that his wife couldn’t be with another man, he alleged that since he financially supports her, he can still seek out other women.
“I’m a king, I pay for everything,” he said. “I treat Danya like a queen. If I get a little p*** on the side, what does that have to do with anything? I have testosterone running through my veins – it’s that f***ing simple.”
O’Malley went on to say that if it wasn’t for all the success he’s had in his career so far, he’d probably have a different take on whether he should be dating other women while with his wife.
“If I wasn’t paying for everything, if I wasn’t, you know, successful in any sort of way, and I was just like maybe an average Joe, I probably wouldn’t,” he said. “It probably wouldn’t be fair. But I’m f***ing King Kong baby.”
O’Malley – who recently knocked out Aljamain Sterling and won the bantamweight title at UFC 292 – also made a reference to Andrew Tate, who’s been open about his own thoughts on women and monogamy.
“Andrew Tate explains it well. It’s status. You know I got status, so I can,” O’Malley said, seemingly referring to an interview in which Tate claimed that men want women to give them status.
He also claimed that while Gonzalez is “never fine with” the terms of their open relationship, she’s “gone through phases” where she has approved of it. He alleged that, when they welcomed their baby together in 2020, his partner’s “hormones” changed over time – hinting that it had an impact on how she feels about him seeing other women.
The MMA star’s comments have quickly sparked outrage, with multiple people in the comments of the YouTube podcast criticising O’Malley for cheating while his wife doesn’t do the same.
“Sean joked about manipulating your girl into being cool with it… but he’s probably not actually joking lol,” one wrote.
“Sean is an absolute clown for that. He even hinted that his wife isn’t 100 per cent OK with it. Probably gaslit her into allowing it. Insanity bro, insane,” another added.
“Nah I’m an O’Malley fan but this ain’t it bro. That’s some boy behaviour to not be able to control your sexual urges and not be able to remain faithful,” a third wrote. “After hooking up with chicks for a while, at a certain point you just want that connection, mutual understanding and companionship. I think Sean is wrong here tbh.”
Other people took to X – formerly known as Twitter – where they claimed that O’Malley was being inconsiderate of his wife, after saying that he can cheat because he pays for everything.
“Listening to all that Sean O’Malley ‘open relationship’ interview and it just feels so sad. It’s probably a lot more bluster than it is reality, but he talks like he’s a few bad months away from being really abusive,” one claimed. “I 100 per cent believe that people who justify their behaviour only through your income and status, will not stop that behaviour without the income or the status. They’ll just find new justifications.”
“I’m a big fan of Sean O’Malley as a fighter, the sport is a lot more exciting with him as champion. But that’s where my respect ends,” another agreed.
In his appearance on the Raw Talk podcast, O’Malley also claimed that while he’s a “crazy mother f***er,” he’s still put himself “on a leash” in order to “live a very disciplined lifestyle”.
“I could, for sure, go out, do some f***ing bumps, and go off the rails easily. If I didn’t have discipline… oh dude, I would be crazy. I would be Conor [McGregor] for sure,” he said. “I would be hitting booger sugar on my yacht and blow all my money. But I live a very disciplined life, and if I want to get a little bit of p***y sometimes, what the f***… It makes me a better man.”
During a previous appearance on the Full Sendpodcast in 2022, O’Malley also discussed what being in an open relationship meant to him. “I like to think of ours as just an open-minded relationship where we don’t own each other,” he said. “I don’t own her, and she doesn’t own me.”
He added that when he started dating his now-wife, he told her that she didn’t want to be in a monogamous relationship. “When I met Danya, I told her, ‘I don’t know why anyone would f*** the same chick for the rest of their life, I can’t do that,’” he said. “So she knew she didn’t fall in love with a fake me.”
The Independent has contacted O’Malley for comment.