Former winner of ‘The X Factor’ Louisa Johnson has publicly apologised after some old tweets containing homophobic language surfaced online recently, most of them published when she was a teenager.

The 20 year old Essex-born pop singer, who won the 2015 edition of the ITV singing competition and was the youngest person ever to do so, came under fire earlier this week after The Sun obtained dozens of offensive messages that Johnson posted on Twitter back in 2013, most of them when she was 14 years old.

Now, Johnson has taken to the same platform to make an unreserved apology, explaining why had done so but not offering it up as a mitigating factor.

Louisa JohnsonLouisa Johnson has apologised for homophobic tweets she made five years ago

“I was young and foolish, and hanging around with the wrong crowd and didn’t know any better,” she wrote on Thursday (March 29th). “That’s not an excuse. It’s an explanation.”

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“I’m sorry for some of the comments I made at that time on social media. I think it’s important for me to speak out about this and say that I don’t think it is right or appropriate for anyone to use derogatory language at any time or at any age, no matter the circumstances.”

“I am a completely different person to who I was at the age of 14, and I am a huge supporter of the LGBT community,” she continued. “I have a lot of young fans, and I know I can now use my voice for a message of positivity, inclusion, and equality.”

Although she has since racked up a number of successful silver-certified singles, Johnson suffered the ignominy of having the lowest-ever-selling ‘X Factor’ winner’s single in December 2015, when her cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Forever Young’ reached only no.9 in the UK for Christmas that year, amid a series that was impact by low viewing figures.

More: Louisa Johnson’s ‘Forever Young’ is the lowest performing ‘X Factor’ winner’s single in 11 years