'9-1-1' star Ryan Guzman apologizes for defending racial slurs: 'I came from an angry place'

After criticism from his own castmates, "9-1-1" actor Ryan Guzman apologized for defending his fiancee's use of the N-word and for condoning the use of racial slurs.

Guzman, who plays firefighter Eddie Diaz in the Fox's emergency-rescue drama, took to Instagram on Monday to address his past comments, in which he defended his fiancee Chrysti Ane's use of the N-word and revealed his own use of racial slurs.

In his most recent apology on Wednesday, the actor promised to "use this experience to learn and grow and make real change."

"I am truly sorry, hold myself accountable and take full responsibility for my defensiveness and ignorance," Guzman wrote on Instagram and Twitter. "I support the Black Community with my whole heart and I am educating myself and listening with an open heart and mind."

The post came one day after his first apology video, in which he clarified that he misspoke when claiming he and his fiancee used slurs.

"I do not condone the use of the N-word by any non-black person. That includes all Latinos. That's not our word," the actor explained in a three-minute video on Monday.

The controversy began when Guzman took to Instagram Live on Sunday to defend Ane's tweets from 2011, in which she used the slur.

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"I have plenty of friends – Black, white, Asian, Indian, whatever they are, Korean – and we make fun of each other's races all the time," Guzman said in Sunday's video.

In response, "9-1-1" co-stars Oliver Stark and Aisha Hinds publicly criticized Guzman's remarks.

"I can tell you that my opinion is there is absolutely no excuse for the use of the n word," Stark responded on Twitter. "It belongs to the Black community only and I absolutely don't agree with it being used by anyone else under any circumstances."

Aisha Hinds, who plays Hen Wilson on the FOX series, also took to Twitter on Monday to address Guzman's statements.

"There's sadly no version of this indefensible discourse that doesn't exacerbate that grief," she wrote.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: '9-1-1' star apologizes for defending use of N-word