Ben Affleck Issues Apology over PBS Show's Ancestor Flap

LOS ANGELES - Ben Affleck has issued an apology over the furor caused by his request for the producers of PBS' "Finding Your Roots" to drop the segment involving his ancestor who owned slaves.

The actor-director wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday that he was sorry for asking the show hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., to remove any mention of his slave-owning ancestor from the episode, which aired Oct. 14, 2014. "I didn't want any television show about my family to include a guy who owned slaves," he wrote. "I was embarrassed. The very thought left a bad taste in my mouth."

Affleck added: "I regret my initial thoughts that the issue of slavery not be included in the story."

In the meantime, PBS has begun an investigation to determine whether all of its editorial standards were met in the broadcast.

"PBS and WNET are conducting an internal review led by our respective programming teams of the circumstances around the Finding Your Roots episode 'Roots of Freedom,' " read a joint statement issued by PBS and WNET which produces "Finding Your Roots."

The investigation comes after hacked Sony emails that surfaced last Friday showing that Affleck had asked for certain aspects of his family history to be removed from

the PBS program