WELLINGTON?A high-profile New Zealand television presenter had to apologies Monday for describing Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle as "retarded".

Paul Henry, a breakfast television presenter on state-owned Television New Zealand, has been in the firing line from viewers since the incident last month.

On Monday Television New Zealand upheld complaints against Henry and the broadcaster said he never intended to offend people with disabilities.

"I am sorry that some people have taken what I said in a way that I never intended," Henry said.

In the original broadcast, Henry quoted from a magazine article which said Boyle was "starved of oxygen at birth" and suffered an intellectual disability.

"If you look at her carefully, you can make it out," Henry told viewers.

"Here's the really interesting revelation: she is in fact retarded."

Television New Zealand's head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery, said Henry's comment had overstepped the mark and "we apologize to those who were hurt and distressed by it".

The 48-year-old spinster caused a sensation when her remarkable singing voice was discovered in April on the "Britain's Got Talent" television show.

Boyle's new album "I Dreamed A Dream" shot to number one and became the best-selling debut in British chart history this month.