Stephen Amell is 'ashamed' of drunken flight incident, clarifies it wasn't an argument with wife

Stephen Amell is walking back claims that he was kicked off a flight earlier this summer over an argument with his wife, clarifying that he was drunk and "picked a fight."

"(I'm) ultimately very ashamed of it, trying to make amends for it, specifically with my wife," he said during Tuesday's episode of the podcast "Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum," adding he was upset "about something else that had nothing to do with Cass, my wife, and I picked a fight. Just picked a fight because I wanted to be loud and upset."

The 40-year-old actor, who's best known for playing hooded vigilante Green Arrow in CW's "Arrow" from 2012-2020, first claimed in June that he was asked to "leave" a Delta flight from Austin to Los Angeles after getting into a squabble with his wife, Cassandra Jean Amell.

"My wife and I got into an argument Monday afternoon on a Delta flight," Amell tweeted June 23. "I was asked to lower my voice and I did. Approximately 10 minutes later I was asked to leave the flight. And I did so immediately. I was not forcibly removed."

Delta Air Lines spokesperson Morgan Durrant confirmed to USA TODAY then that there was a "brief, eight minute departure delay" on Delta flight 966 "after an unruly customer was deplaned from the aircraft prior to departure in Austin."

Amell and wife Cassandra Jean Amell were returning to Los Angeles from ATX Television Festival, according to her Instagram post, where she wrote that they had a "pretty good time." The couple has been married for almost nine years and share a 7-year-old daughter.

The actor explained on the podcast that he had too many drinks before he got onto the plane and "picked a fight" as a result. His previous characterization of the incident being an argument with his wife wasn't accurate, he noted, because she wasn't "engaging with him."

"My wife said one thing the entire time, which was, 'If you don't lower your voice, they're going to kick you off the plane,' " Amell said, adding it was "100% my fault."

Previously: 'Arrow' star Stephen Amell removed from Delta flight after argument with wife

Although Amell didn't initially go into detail about the cause of the incident, the actor admitted at the time that he "let my emotions get the better of me, end of story." He added, "I rebooked myself on a Southwest flight 2 hours later and traveled home without any further issue."

"I’m actually, frankly, like deeply ashamed of it. I was quiet for 10 minutes, (then) a guy came back. Clearly I had made somebody uncomfortable, somebody said something and they just made the decision: 'You've got to get off the plane," he said Tuesday.

"I feel like I went the better part of 10 years without being an (expletive) in public. I was an (expletive) in public."

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Contributing: Cydney Henderson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Stephen Amell kicked off plane: Actor sorry to wife, says he was drunk