Hannah Hidalgo — a Notre Dame sophomore and one of college basketball’s rising stars — addressed a controversial Instagram post from last July during ESPN’s documentary series Full Court Press.
Hidalgo received social media backlash for reposting a video of conservative media personality Candace Owens calling former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s marriage “sinful,” and saying that “I actually don’t believe marriage can be between two men.”
“What I reposted hurt a lot of people,” Hidalgo said on the show. “I took it down, of course. I want to apologize to the people that I hurt because that is never my intention. I love everyone regardless of what skin color, what belief, what religion, regardless of what you think, because the Lord calls us to love everyone.”
When asked by ESPN, Hidalgo said she was not homophobic.
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“No,” Hidalgo said. “Absolutely not. I have friends [who] are homosexual. I have teammates that I play with every single day, practice with them every day, [who] are homosexual too, and that doesn’t stop me from loving them. I will go to war for any single one of my teammates, and they know that. I don’t want anyone to think I am apologetic for my faith, but what I am sorry for is that I hurt people, and I hurt people closest to me.”
Since Notre Dame’s early exit from the NCAA Tournament, four players have entered the transfer portal, including star guard Olivia Miles (TCU), Kate Koval, Emma Risch, and Kylee Watson.
The unexpected departures surprised Hidalgo and the program.
“We already knew we were going to have a lot of seniors graduating, but I didn’t really expect that many people to get into the portal,” Hidalgo said.
But with the new group comes a “clean slate,” and Hidalgo and coach Niele Ivey expressed excitement for Hidalgo to take on a larger leadership role as an upperclassman. Hidalgo and Ivey want to build a “family environment” and improve off-court chemistry.
“Next year, you’re going to be the face of women’s basketball,” Ivey said to Hidalgo.
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