Kevin Hart wishes he’d handled his Oscars controversy differently.
The 40-year-old actor was due to host the Academy Awards last year but stepped back in December 2018 following controversy over past homophobic tweets and he’s now admitted there was a "big gap" between what he thought the problem was and what had actually bothered people.
He told the new issue of America’s Men’s Health magazine: "I’m a firm believer in laying in the bed that you made.
"If there’s something that you did, then you did it. You know, there’s no wiggle room around it. You can address it, and then you can move on.
"With the whole Oscars thing, there was a big gap between what I thought the problem was versus what the problem really was.
"I got 10 years where I made sure not to joke or play in the way that I did back then because it was a problem. I don’t care if you’re gay or not gay. I’m a people person. I’m going to love you regardless."
The ‘Get Hard’ star admitted it took speaking with close friends including Wanda Sykes, Lee Daniels and Ellen DeGeneres for him to understand how he had mishandled his response.
He added: "Then I was like, ‘Oh, s**t – I did f**k up.’ "
Kevin felt he increased the backlash against him by giving short-tempered responses as he was frustrated that he’d been labelled homophobic.
He said: "What I thought it was it wasn’t, and my approach to dealing with it because of the assumption that I had is just wrong.
"I missed an opportunity to say simply that I don’t condone any type of violence in any way, shape or form to anyone for being who they are.
"I f**ked up. Instead, I said, ‘I addressed it.’ I said, ‘I apologised.’ I said, ‘I talked about this already.’ I was just immature."
Kevin Hart’s Oscars controversy regret
