should I say sorry abt a rumour that was spread about me and was not true? for the sake of clearing up bitterness

lots of friends cut me off after I said something and someone and an ex friend, Sophia, twisted it and took it out of context. that very friend also sent me paragraphs or stuff listing how bad I am and she told the whole world things I hv regrettably said about people. I wanted to be petty and do the same because she was even more brutal with things she say about people, but I decided not to for the sake of my own integrity. some of it was true and reasonable, some of it was straight up outta pocket. she later apologised, I just said all good. I did not actually forgive her, I lost about 15 friends from and after 2 months im still trying to find my footing

I want to apologise to the people that I was supposedly talking about. they cut me off, didnt let me offer an explanation as well. should I? especially that those people dont like me anymore, they are nice to me but I can tell its fake.

edit: if u wanna know what I said, basically I said that this person was a bitch. that person bullied me, so. Always telling me how ugly and fat I was. Then saying it’s a joke. but those friends seemed to suck up to her, and then proceeded to tell the whole world that I called her a bitch, but also then added that I wanted to tear up that whole friend group that the bully was in. I was friends w a few people in that group, none of whom talks to me anymore. a few days ago, one of Sophia’s friends added a story that had the bully and that friend talking shit abt how ugly and stuff I was, so im g w not being friends them. however a few of Sophias friends r still good w me, and ended up scolding that friend