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Kanye West cracks up on TV and makes a Swift apology
By Mark Blunden, London Lite Last updated at 15:52pm on 15.09.09Kanye West was close to tears as he made another apology for his onstage rant at the MTV Video Music Awards.
The rapper appeared on America's Jay Leno Show last night in an attempt to win back public favour after humiliating singer Taylor Swift live on air.
Onstage drama: Kanye West snatches the mic from Taylor Swift at the MTV awards
He told the TV chat show host he had been “rude” and “in the wrong” and wanted to apologise to the 19-year-old country star — but then blamed his mother's death two years ago for his behaviour.
On Sunday millions of viewers saw West, 32, jump onstage and grab the microphone from Taylor as she accepted the award for best female video.
After he was earlier seen swigging cognac from a bottle on the red carpet, West shouted that his friend Beyoncé should have won. He was then thrown out of the New York ceremony.
West, who has already apologised twice on his blog, told Leno: “I immediately knew it was wrong. It was actually someone's emotions that I stepped on. And if there's anything I could do to help Taylor in the future or help anyone, I'd like — you know, I want to live this thing. It's hard sometimes.”
Winner: singer Taylor Swift in New York yesterday
Almost in tears, he then appeared to blame his behaviour on not taking time out to grieve the death of his mother Donda, who suffered complications from cosmetic surgery.
He also said he would now take some time off to think about “how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life”.
