Kevin Hart has said he wishes he handled his Oscars controversy differently but admitted he didn't fully understand why people had an issue at first.
The 40-year-old stand-up comedian and actor was due to host the Academy Awards last year but stepped down in December 2018 following controversy over past homophobic tweets .
Speaking to 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.''
Hart admitted it took discussions with close friends including Wanda Sykes, Lee Daniels and Ellen Degeneres for him to understand how he had mishandled his "approach to dealing with it".
He added: ''Then I was like, 'Oh, s**t - I did f**k up.' ''
''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.''
You can catch The 92nd Academy Awards at 9.35pm on RTÉ 2 on Monday, February 10.
