Heather McDonald
Heather McDonald, shown Jan. 26, 2016, says she’s sorry for trashing her former boss, Chelsea Handler. Getty Images

Heather McDonald issued an apology to Chelsea Handler two weeks after she said she “lived in fear” while working on the E network series “Chelsea Lately.” The actress and comedian told Ross Mathews on the “Hollywood Today Live” television show Monday she felt “dumb” once her comments went viral, according to Radar Online.

McDonald, 45, said she actually “loved” working on the series and that her “one sentence” was taken out of context. “I was just being brutally honest about my own insecurities, my own shortcomings,” she said Monday. “I was just reflecting on something from a year and a half back. I was being quite self-deprecating.”

She told Howard Stern in a separate interview: “I’m really sorry that she or anyone else was hurt by that dumb sentence.”

The former E network star told Mathews she regretted talking negatively about her seven-year gig on “Chelsea Lately.” McDonald said: “I never wanted this. I never sought the publicity. Then when it came out, I didn’t know how to deal with it. I didn’t do any interviews. Once it’s out, it’s very hard to rectify.”

Although McDonald is apologetic now, her regret comes after she painted Handler in a horrible light. For instance, McDonald once claimed Chuy Bravo, Handler’s sidekick on the late-night show, was treated unfairly. “The whole relationship on the show between Chelsea and Chuy was so wrong and so inappropriate — basically like she owned a slave or a pet, but people didn’t care because the little people were just so happy that a little person had a job, that she was a supporter of little people,” McDonald said on the podcast, “Fairly Normal with Josh Wolf,” according to a report by Radar Online.

Naturally, Handler was livid when she discovered McDonald had trashed her show and her character. And she slammed her former friend for not addressing her directly. “She would never say anything my face. She would only say that on the radio,” Handler told Jenny McCarthy on SiriusXM Radio last month. “She would never because she’s f------ scared, and she should be. Now she should really be scared. What a loser.”

Handler’s new project, a four-part docuseries dubbed “Chelsea Does,” is currently streaming on Netflix. She explores drugs, marriage, racism and Silicon Valley.

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