Ben Affleck ‘embarrassed’ by slave past

Ben Affleck has expressed regret for asking the makers of a discover-your-past television show to exclude the fact that he had a slave-owning ancestor.

Affleck, 42, said he was “embarrassed” to have a show about his family“include a guy who owned slaves”, but added: “We deserve neither credit nor blame for our ancestors and the degree of interest in this story suggests that we are, as a nation, still grappling with the terrible legacy of slavery.”

The request by the star of the likes of Gone Girl and Argo came to light last week in hacked Sony emails published by whistleblower site WikiLeaks.