Kanye West appeared close to tears last night as he apologised on US television for his outburst at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday.

The rapper has faced a barrage of criticism after he stormed on stage to complain that Taylor Swift had won Best Female Video Prize over Beyonce.

West, who was only originally due to perform on The Jay Leno Show, said he had found the last 24 hours “extremely difficult” and wanted to say sorry to Swift in person.

“I've only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right – and I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong and it wasn't a spectacle,” he said.

“It's actually someone's emotions that I stepped on and it was rude. Period.”

West became emotional when Jay Leno asked him if his late mother Donda, who died in 2007, would have been disappointed about his reaction.

After a brief pause, West replied: “Yeah, obviously I deal with hurt. So many celebrities they never take the time off and I've never taken the time off.

“I'm just ashamed that my hurt caused some else's hurt. My dream of what award shows were supposed to be...I don't try to justify it because I was just in the wrong.

“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 going to improve – because I am a celebrity and that's something I'm going to have to deal with.”

West went on to perform alongside Jay-Z and Rihanna on the programme.

The rapper had previously expressed his remorse in two separate apologies on his blog – the first of which was replaced yesterday afternoon.

(by Jason Gregory)