Rice makes teary apology over homophobic slur

ANTHONY JOHNSON/Sun Herald

SORRY: Stephanie Rice wipes a tear away at her press conference.

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A tearful Stephanie Rice has made an emotional public apology over her homophobic slur on Twitter, saying she has learned a huge lesson.

The swim star twice broke down in tears at a press conference she called in Sydney on Wednesday as she pleaded for forgiveness over what she labelled "thoughtless and careless" comments.

Triple Olympic gold medallist Rice tweeted "Suck on that faggots!" following the Wallabies' dramatic Tri-Nations weekend win over the Springboks early on Sunday AEST.

She deleted the post and apologised via the social networking site but on Wednesday opted to offer a public apology as well.

"I owe it to those who I have offended to publicly say, I am sorry. It is not me to give offence to other people no matter who they are," Rice said.

"I am not a person who judges others or speaks in a way that hurts others.

"My comments were thoughtless and careless but I can assure you when I made those comments on Twitter I never intended to offend anybody.

"I've learned a lot in the last couple of days.

"I've learned I must think before I speak and this has been a very important lesson.

"I've also learned that some things you say can mean more to others than they do to you."

Rice's comments earned strong condemnation led, by gay ex-footballer Ian Roberts who called Rice an "idiot" and called for sponsors to abandon her.

The 22-year-old had her deal with motor company Jaguar terminated on Tuesday.

Rice said she had not spoken to Roberts but would be happy to.

The incident caps an eventful few weeks for Rice, who recently had shoulder surgery that will see her miss next month's Commonwealth Games.

She hoped her apology would help her earn back the public's trust.

"I felt I've let a lot of people down," she said.

"I just want people to know how sorry I am.

"I'm just here to gain people's trust back and show how out of character it was."

- AAP