Kanye: I'm Sorry

Kanye WestKanye West has apologised again to Taylor Swift - this time on US TV.

As a backlash mounted against the rapper, he admitted on the Jay Leno show: "It was rude, period."

Stars took to Twitter after the MTV VMA awards do on Sunday night to slam Kanye's behaviour.

Pink Twittered: "Kanye West is the biggest piece of s*** on earth," while Beyonce's former bandmate Kelly Rowland called Kanye's stunt "disturbing".

Kanye blamed his mother's 2007 death for causing him to ambush Taylor Swift onstage and admitted she would have been disappointed by his behaviour.

"You know, I deal with hurt. And you know, so many celebrities, they never take time off. I've never taken the time off to really - you know, just music after music and tour after tour.

He says he's going to take time out to reflect on what he did and figure out, "how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life.

"I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else's hurt - and I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong. That's period.

"But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyse how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm goiKanye West and Taylor Swift at the VMAsng to improve. Because I am a celebrity, and that's something I have to deal with.

Kanye went onto say he'd like to apologise to Taylor in person, adding: "And if there's anything I could do to help Taylor in the future or help anyone, I'd like - you know, I want to live this thing. It's hard sometimes."

The star said he knew he'd done something wrong, "as soon as I gave the mic back to her and she didn't keep going."

But Kanye's got some back-up - from awards host Russell Brand.

Russell admitted it wasn't cool to "make a pretty girl cry," but said: "We're just people; we all do things that are a bit silly sometimes.

"Calm down; no one died."

Check out all the VMAs action below.