A newly-released text message allegedly between Zach Smith and his ex-wife Courtney appears to show the former Ohio State assistant coach admitting to strangling her.
Smith went on the radio Friday and publicly denied ever abusing his ex-wife while they were together (full story here).
In response to Smith defiantly saying he had never abused Courtney, reporter Brett McMurphy, who has been at the forefront in reporting this story, released a new text message conversation. The messages allegedly took place between Zach and Courtney. In the exchange, Courtney references two times that Zach had picked her up by her neck and strangled her. “The abuse got worse bc u couldn’t stand me catching u in ur lies,” she says.
The other person in the conversation did not deny the charges, but simply responded, “I know!!!!!”
Zach Smith told @1057TheZone he never abused Courtney. Here is text message b/w Zach & Courtney when he admits & apologizes for strangling his wife on Punta Cana trip in March 2015 & again in April pic.twitter.com/GjcjWh6mFT
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 3, 2018
If those text messages are authentic, they would certainly damage Zach Smith’s side of the story. He claims to have never abused his wife despite a history of allegations suggesting otherwise. The person responding in those text messages did not even dispute the strangling claims.
Not only did Smith go on the radio Friday to defend himself, but Urban Meyer also issued a statement to defend his actions. Meyer is now admitting to reporting what he knew about the 2015 incidents involving Smith to his superiors, contrary to what he said at Big Ten Media Days last week.
