Spike Lee has backtracked on comments he recently made defending Woody Allen over sexual abuse allegations.

Speaking to New York radio station WOR 710 this week, Lee had discussed prominent allegations that Allen abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.

• Read more: ‘A Rainy Day In New York’ review: a damp end to Woody Allen’s Hollywood career

“I’d just like to say Woody Allen’s a great, great filmmaker,” Lee originally said on air. “And this cancel thing is not just Woody.

“I think that, when you know, we look back on it, we’re gonna see that, I don’t know if just short of killing somebody, I don’t know you just erase somebody like they never existed. So, Woody’s a friend of mine, a fellow Knick fan, so I know he’s going through it right now.”

Appearing to take back his comments in a new tweet posted last night (June 13), Lee clarified: “I Deeply Apologize. My Words Were WRONG. I Do Not And Will Not Tolerate Sexual Harassment, Assault Or Violence. Such Treatment Causes Real Damage That Can’t Be Minimized.”

I Deeply Apologize. My Words Were WRONG. I Do Not And Will Not Tolerate Sexual Harassment, Assault Or Violence. Such Treatment Causes Real Damage That Can't Be Minimized.-Truly, Spike Lee.

— Spike Lee (@SpikeLeeJoint) June 13, 2020

Allen recently criticised “self-serving” members of the film community who denounced him in relation to the ongoing abuse allegations.

“The actors have no idea of the facts and they latch on to some self-serving, public, safe position,” he told The Guardian. “Who in the world is not against child molestation?”

“That’s how actors and actresses are, and [denouncing me] became the fashionable thing to do,” he added, “like everybody suddenly eating kale.”

Spike Lee is about to release new film Da 5 Bloods, which NME called “one of his best ever movies” in a five-star review.

“Lee has made a Vietnam War movie the only way anyone really can – by acknowledging that no awful event in history can ever be defined by a single start or end point, and that no one person’s take can ever feel definitive.

“History will probably never stop repeating itself, but Spike Lee will hopefully never stop reminding us about it.”