Rohan Dennis broke his silence Monday for the first time since receiving a suspended sentence over the death of his wife and lashed out at media coverage while insisting he never intended to harm fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins.<\/p>\n
In the statement posted overnight, Dennis, an Australian former pro cyclist, criticized journalists for what he described as distorted reporting of the case. He said the tragedy was never deliberate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved Melissa and the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt her,\u201d Dennis wrote. \u201cNever in my life has any physical aggression crossed my mind in any disagreement with Melissa. The narrative which the media ran with was clear they wanted me to look like the husband who abused his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four-page Instagram post marks his first public comments about the December 2023 incident that killed Hoskins, 32.<\/p>\n
Hoskins died from injuries during a domestic dispute at the couple\u2019s home near Adelaide, Australia.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear why Dennis chose now to post the comments, but the statement follows a controversy last month when Dennis posted a photo on social media of a Porsche with the comment \u201cwhat an absolute weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
That drew sharp criticism from victim advocates, who called the language insensitive given the circumstances of Hoskins\u2019 death.<\/p>\n
Tragedy for cycling super couple<\/h2>\n
According to police records, Dennis drove away in a Volkswagen SUV as Hoskins ran outside and climbed onto the hood of the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Video evidence revealed that she fell after trying to grab the driver\u2019s door and was dragged under the car. She later died in hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n
Dennis and Hoskins married in 2018 and had two children.<\/p>\n
The couple were highly visible within the tight-knit Australian cycling community, and both competed in Olympic and international road and track races.<\/p>\n
After a police investigation and court hearing, Dennis pleaded guilty to an aggravated charge of creating a likelihood of harm and was handed a suspended 16-month prison term, along with a five-year driving ban.<\/p>\n
Here is the full text:<\/h2>\n
Not everyone is going to care about what was said to me by journalists or anyone since the accident with my wife.<\/em><\/p>\n But I don\u2019t care. This is simply to point out the false narrative which the media created about me for clicks.<\/em><\/p>\n Yes it was an accident.<\/em><\/p>\n I loved Melissa and the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt her.<\/em><\/p>\n Never in my life has any physical aggression crossed my mind in any disagreement with Melissa.<\/em><\/p>\n The narrative which the media ran with was clear they wanted me to look like the husband who abused his wife.<\/em><\/p>\n I have ALWAYS been against any sort of abuse against women and especially the one who gave birth to my children.<\/em><\/p>\n Now I\u2019m going to open up publicly about some things that have been said to me by so-called \u2018journalists\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n They greeted me and my family at the airport not 24hrs after my wife\u2019s funeral.<\/em><\/p>\n The things which I and others vividly remember that were said to me in front of my 2 year old daughter are disgusting!<\/em><\/p>\n Things such as:<\/em><\/p>\n How does it feel knowing you killed the mother of your two children, and they\u2019ll never see their mother again?!<\/em><\/p>\n Are you a murderer?!<\/em><\/p>\n A cameraman eventually fell over and hurt himself. Did I laugh?<\/em><\/p>\n No. Did I stop and ask if he was ok? Yes.<\/em><\/p>\n Even after they constantly tried to bait me into getting angry<\/em><\/p>\n This is just one of MANY encounters<\/em><\/p>\n You may ask \u2013 What do I want out of this post?<\/em><\/p>\n I simply want to tell not just my experience but my kids experience with the media.<\/em><\/p>\n The media speak about the children and how saddened they are for the children. Yet they happily stalk, follow and harass not just adults in my family but even when the kids are involved.<\/em><\/p>\n Following us in cars to be able to publish our movements to the public. Putting my kids in stressful situations. Yet they care about the kids.<\/em><\/p>\n Then there is the clear twisting of any words I use. They know I never intentionally or unintentionally used a vehicle as a weapon. Never was it legally said that I did either. The video footage of the accident also proves this statement.<\/em><\/p>\n Yet again they come after me for cheap clicks. Pathetic journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n Time for all you so-called journalists and media outlets to back off and leave my family alone<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/rohan-dennis-breaks-silence-weeks-after-weapon-backlash-in-melissa-hoskins-death\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1171053081.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated April 7, 2026 09:57AM Rohan Dennis broke his silence Monday for the first time since receiving a suspended sentence over the death of his wife and lashed out at media coverage while insisting he never intended to harm fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins. In the statement posted overnight, Dennis, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1871562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1871562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1871562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1871562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1871562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}