Milo Yiannopoulos/Press Conference

Okay. Thanks.

Thanks for coming everybody.

I'm going to be reading from a prepared statement. And then I'll be happy to take some of your questions.

I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim.

Between the ages of 13 and 16, two men touched me in ways they should not have. One of those men was a priest.

My relationship with my abusers is complicated by the fact that, at the time, I didn't perceive what was happening as abusive. But I can look back now and see that it was. I still don't view myself as a victim. But clearly I am one.

Looking back, I see the effects that this had on me. In the years after what happened, I fell into alcohol and nihilistic partying that lasted well into my twenties.

A few years ago I realized it was time to do something good with my life. I started focusing on work. But the black comedy, the gallows humor, and the love of shock value I developed in my twenties never really went away.

I've reviewed the tapes that appeared a few days ago in the proper context and I don't believe that they say what is being reported. Nonetheless I do say some things on the tapes that I do not mean and which do not reflect my views.

My experiences as a victim led me to believe that I could say almost anything on this subject, no matter how outrageous. But I understand that my usual blend of sassy gay British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, even worse, as seems to have been the case in reports, "advocacy." I'm horrified by that impression.

I would like to restate my disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career to exposing child abusers. I've exposed three of them, in my reporting, which is three more than most of my critics.

I've repeatedly expressed disgust at pedophilia in my feature and opinion writing. I was also the first journalist in the UK to ask after Jimmy Savile's death whether the real story of his rampant child abuse would ever be told. My professional record is very very clear.

But I do understand that the videos that you have seen, even though some of them were deceptively edited, paint a different picture. And I am partly to blame for that.

I do not advocate for illegal behavior. I explicitly say on the tapes, in a section that was cut from the footage that you've seen, that I think the age of consent currently is "about right." I do not believe that any change in the legal age of consent is justifiable or desirable.

I don't believe that sex with 13-year-olds is okay. When I mentioned the number 13, I was talking about myself, and the age that I lost my virginity. Can strike so me Americans as unusual or strange, but my mother's native Germany, the age of consent is 14. We have a different approach to these things some times in Europe.

I shouldn't have used the word "boy", gay men often use "boy" or "girl" to mean men of consenting age. But I understand how heterosexual people may not have realized that and that was an error. I was in fact talking about my own relationship when I was 17 with a man who was 29. The age of consent in the UK is 16.

I did say that there are relationships between older gay men and younger gay men that can help the younger gay man escape from a lack of support or understanding at home. That's perfectly true and every gay man knows it.

I am certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret.

And anyone who suggests however that I turn a blind eye to illegal activity or to the abuse of minors is unequivocally wrong. I am implacably opposed to the normalization of pedophilia and I will continue to report and speak accordingly. To repeat: I do not support child abuse. It is a disgusting crime of which I have personally been a victim.

The remarks I made on podcasts and interviews more than a year ago were about my personal life experiences. But I didn't make that clear. I will not apologize for dealing with my life experiences in the way that I choose to, which is through humor and provocation. No one can tell me or anyone else who has lived through these experiences how they should best deal with those emotions.

But I am sorry to other abuse victims who may have interpreted what I said as flippant or uncaring, if my own personal way of dealing with what happened to me has hurt you.

I will never stop making jokes about taboo subjects. Go into any drag bar or gay club and you will hear joke after joke after joke about clerical sexual abuse. I am not afforded the same freedom to make those kinds of jokes, because the media chooses to selectively define me as a political figure in some circumstances, and a comedian in others. And also, of course, because I'm a conservative.

But I said some things on those Internet live streams that were simply wrong.

My employer Breitbart News has stood by me while others caved. They have allowed me to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have had them. They have been a significant factor in my success. And I'm grateful for the freedom and for the friendships that I forged there.

But I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues' important job, which is why today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone.

When your friends have done right by you, it's only right to do right by them. And for me that means stepping aside, so my colleagues at Breitbart can get back to the great work they do.

My book, Dangerous, has received interest from other publishers after my previous publisher Simon and Schuster informed me they no longer wished to release it. The book will come out this year as planned. With perhaps an additional chapter. I will be donating 10 per cent of my royalties to child sex abuse charities.

I haven't ever apologized before. And I don't anticipate ever doing it again. Name-calling doesn't bother me. And misreporting doesn't bother me. But to be a victim of child abuse and at the same time be accused of being an apologist for child abuse is absurd.

I regret the things that I said. I don't think I've been as sorry about anything my whole life. And this isn't how I wanted my parents to find out about this either.

But let's be clear about what's happening here. This is a cynical media witch hunt from people who do not care about children. They care about destroying me and my career, and by extension my allies. They know that although I made some outrageous statements, I've never actually done anything wrong. They held this story back, they held the footage back, footage has been out there in the wild for over a year. Because they don't care about victims, they don't care about children, they only care about bringing me down. They will fail.

I will, in the next couple of weeks, be announcing a new, independently-funded media venture of my own, and a live tour in the coming weeks. And new campus tour dates. Part of my new Troll Academy Tour.

I started my career as a technology reporter who wrote about politics, but I have since mutated and grown into something quite different and much bigger. I'm now a performer with millions of fans in America and beyond. I'm grateful for the tens of thousands of messages that I have received and I look forward to making you all laugh, cry, and think for many many decades to come.

My full focus is now going to be on entertaining and educating everyone, left, right, and otherwise. If you want to brand or stereotype me, good luck with that.

Don't think for a moment that anything that has happened in the last 48 hours will ever stop me being as offensive, provocative, and outrageously funny as I choose, on any subject I please. America has a colossal free speech problem. The land of the First Amendment has some of the most oppressive social restrictions on free expression anywhere in the Western world. I'm proud to be a warrior for free speech and creative expression.

And I want everyone in America, to have the right to do, be, say, read anything. I want people to be able to dress however they want. I want people to be able to play whatever videogames they want. I want people to realize their potential and have the full limits of creative expression available to them. That isn't currently the case in America. America is a country I love. America is a country that has taken me in. It's people have taken me in. And I'm very grateful for that. I am proud to be a free speech warrior in America. And I will continue to do that. I'm not going anywhere.

Thank you very much. I will take perhaps 5 questions.