Canadian singer Michael Bublé has been forced to apologise for unintentionally offending (some) people after posting a photo of himself next to a girl in tiny shorts with the hashtag #beautifulbum.

The photo, taken by the star’s wife, was supposed to be of Bublé but the girl talking to a woman at a reception desk in Miami was also caught in the frame.

Posting it on his instagram page, Bublé wrote: ‘There was something about this photo lu [his wife] took, that seemed worthy of instagram’.

But he was attacked by people accusing him of ‘body shaming’ the girl, despite his obvious compliment of the woman’s physique.

One user, called ‘heysitsperkins’ replied to the photo saying “you skank” while another who calls herself ‘50shadesofhermione‘ asked: “not being funny but what right does he have to body shame a woman, look at the state of himself,” evidently entirely missing the point that the millionaire singer thought the woman had a delightful behind.

And others took to twitter to accuse him of sexist behaviour by complimenting a woman on her bottom, saying he ‘should be ashamed of himself’ for ‘body shaming’ and ‘had lost respect’ over the light hearted picture.

The singer hit back at the criticism, saying it was “complimentary and light hearted”, adding he was “deeply” hurt by any accusations that he had disrespected women.

In a statement regarding the instagram picture, he said he regrets “there were people out there who found the photo offensive. That was not and is not my intention.”

“Women are to be celebrated, loved, respected, honoured and revered. I’ve spent my life believing that and will continue to do so.”

Despite the controversy which has surrounded the cheeky photo, Bublé did not removed the photo from the site.

Plenty of his fans saw the humour in his picture with one follower expressing confusion that people were “mad cause he liked her butt?” Adding, “Bunch of prudes.”

Another fan, chelseaevans90, went even further saying:

“Quite frankly If @michaelbuble took a picture of my arse and thought it was worthy of putting it on Instagram I would walk around with no trousers on for the rest of my days!!!”