Justin Bieber apologises for using the N-word in offensive joke

Justin Bieber has apologised after a video of him telling a racist joke was leaked online.

Aged just 15 at the time, the pop star has blamed his ignorance for the hurtful slur he made, calling it a “reckless and immature mistake” and insisting that he has learned from it and will never do it again.

“As a young man, I didn’t understand the power of certain words and how they can hurt,” he said in a statement released on Sunday.

“I thought it was OK to repeat hurtful words and jokes, but didn’t realise at the time that it wasn’t funny and that in fact my actions were continuing the ignorance.”

He goes on to say that he is “grateful to those close to me who helped me learn those lessons as a young man.”

“Thanks to friends and family I learned from my mistakes and grew up and apologised for those wrongs. Now that these mistakes from the past have become public, I need to apologise again to all those I have offended,” he says.

“I’m very sorry. I take my friendships with people of all cultures very seriously and I apologise for offending or hurting anyone with my childish and inexcusable mistake. I was a kid then and I am a man now who knows my responsibility to the world and to not make that mistake again.”

“Ignorance has no place in our society and I hope the sharing of my faults can prevent others from making the same mistake in the future. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say but telling the truth is always what’s right.

“Once again….I’m sorry.”

In the clip, obtained by celebrity gossip site TMZ, the the-teenage singer was filmed saying the N-word five times.

He asked: ‘Why are black people afraid of chainsaws?’ before making the noise of a chainsaw and concluding the joke with ‘Run n*****, n*****, n*****, n*****, n*****.’

The clip was filmed as part of a tour documentary and Bieber’s team of publicists reportedly offered to buy it for a huge sum to keep it out of the public domain.

The video was shot as part of his 2011 documentary Never Say Never, which charts the lead-up to his New York concert in 2010. Filmed in Los Angeles, it shows him playing with a mobile while sitting in a room full of friends.

One male friend can be heard begging him not to complete the joke, but he grins before delivering the punchline to the camera.

The clip was met with a huge backlash on social media yesterday.