5 Seconds of Summer's Michael Clifford has apologised for his old offensive Twitter posts.

The 24-year-old singer insisted he is a ''different person'' now to the one who shared sexist and homophobic content on the social media platform in 2012 and never intended to ''hurt anyone'' with the ''dumb '' messages, which recently resurfaced.

He tweeted: ''hi. I am so f***ing sorry for all the dumb s**t I did when I was younger.

''I am a different person now with a much better understanding of the world. Some people have access to a digital megaphone a bit earlier than they should, unfortunately, I was one of them.

''I am so sorry for hurting anyone. It was never my intention. I was so naive and I am embarrassed and beyond sorry. I will continue to be better and I will continue to change. I never want to hurt anyone again.''

Meawhile, Michael recently declared coronavirus a ''cool test'' for bands to try and ''push them creatively''.

The 'Wildflower' hitmaker - who is joined in the group by Calum Hood, Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings - admits it has been tough in lockdown without his band members, but it has given them a new challenge.

He said: ''I think it's been a cool test for bands and artists to have to do things out of their own home. I feel like it's pushed everyone creatively, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't looking forward to just getting in a room with everyone again and actually being able to play instruments and just feel the presence of the band. It's been interesting to try to push the boundaries of how you connect with people [when] you only have the internet. Usually we're just so used to physically flying to another country, like, 'Hello, we're all here.'''