Made a mistake: Natalie Portman apologises for comment on Jessica Simpson's bikini snaps

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman admitted she "made a mistake" by bringing up actor-singer Jessica Simpson's bikini-clad magazine cover from 1999 while talking about women being sexualised in the music industry during the late nineties.

"I would never want to shame anyone and I fully respect her and her choices. I was talking about the confusion I felt as a young girl seeing the messages that I felt the media was sending out to young girls about very specific ways we should be. I made a mistake to say a name. It was absolutely not directed at her. I feel bad that she was hurt," Portman said in an interview to People magazine.

The 'Annihilation' star's apology comes after Simpson called out to her for saying that she was "confused" by the latter's picture on the cover of a magazine saying, 'I'm a virgin' while wearing a bikini. "And I was confused. Like, I don't know what this is trying to tell me as a woman, as a girl," Portman had said in an interview with USA Today recently.

Disappointed by Portman's comment, Simpson took to social media to post a note asking the former not to shame women on the basis of their choices.