Watch Notorious Pick-Up Artist Julien Blanc Say Sorry

After widespread backlash from around the world, notorious pick-up artist (PUA) Julien Blanc has attempted to apologize for causing offence.

The self-described “leader in dating advice,” Blanc works for LA-based company Real Social Dynamics and travels the world teaching seminars and “bootcamps” to men on how to meet and seduce women. Though he’s certainly not the first PUA to cause controversy, many felt that Blanc crossed the line from sexist and offensive to violent and dangerous when videos and photos surfaced of him describing and demonstrating grabbing women and forcing their heads into his crotch.

In one video, he can be heard telling a group of men, “In Tokyo, if you’re a white male,” Blanc says in one video to a room full of rapt men, “you can do what you want. I’m just romping through the streets, just grabbing girls’ heads, just like, head, pfft on the d–k. Head, on the d–k, yelling, ‘Pikachu.’”

MORE: Julien Blanc: Is he the most hated man in the world?

But after the backlash prompted the Australian government to revoke his visa and other countries around the world to consider similiar measures, Blanc said. “I 100 percent take responsibility,” Blanc told CNN. “I apologise 100 percent for it. I’m extremely sorry. I feel horrible, I’m not going to be happy if I feel like I’m the most hated man in the world. I’m overwhelmed by the way people are responding.”

Blanc also maintained that he did not teach his customers to choke or abuse women and passed off a picture of him with his hand around a woman’s neck as a “horrible, horrible attempt at humour.” He added that much of the controversy was over comments and actions that had been “taken out of context in a way.”

Yet he did assure Cuomo that he would be “re-evaluating” everything he had put out online and everything he would be putting out in the future.

[CNN]