James Corden says it was his wife's "serious food allergy" that caused him to make comments at a New York restaurant that saw him banned for 24 hours.
The Late Late Show host spoke publicly on his show on Monday night (US time) about the allegations made against him by Balthazar restaurant owner Keith McNally.
Corden apologised, saying it was never his "intention" to be rude or upset the staff when he sent back his wife's order.
"So we sit down, we ordered, and my wife explained that she has a serious food allergy," he said.
"So when everybody's meals came, my wife was given the food that she was allergic to. But she hadn't taken a bite of it or anything, no worries - we sent it back. All was good."
After the meal had to be sent back multiple times, he lashed out, Corden revealed.
"In the heat of the moment, I made a sarcastic rude comment about cooking it myself.
"It is a comment I deeply regret. I understand the difficulties of being a server. I worked shifts at restaurants for years.
"I have such respect, and I value anyone that does such a job," he added.
"And the team at that restaurant is so great. That's why I love it there."
Corden didn't address the claims he'd demanded their drinks to be compensated, saying the restaurant gave them four glasses of complementary champagne and they considered the matter closed.
But he said that led him to believe he "hadn't done anything wrong".
"I've been walking around thinking that I hadn't done anything wrong, right? But the truth is, I made a rude comment, and it was wrong.
"It was an unnecessary comment. It was ungracious to the server."
After McNally spoke out about Corden's behaviour in a widely circulated post last week, Corden said he called him directly to discuss what happened.
"We had a good talk. He appreciated the call. I was happy that we got to clear the air, and I felt like we dealt with it privately, you know?" Corden said. "But by this point, the story was out there, and people were upset."
In McNally's original post, the Balthazar owner also made reference to complaints from other restaurants about Corden's behaviour. However, the TV host didn't mention those in his on-air apology.
McNally also responded to the public apology, saying he was going to "ban himself" from the restaurant instead.
"Last Night on his TV show, James Corden very graciously apologized for his outburst at Balthazar. It takes a real man to do this. In the past, I've behaved much worse than Corden, but wasn't man enough to apologize," he wrote.
"For this reason, I'm going to lift the ban on Corden," he continued, joking he would "impose one on myself instead".
"I'm going to ban myself from Balthazar for two weeks."
