I feel awful & I didn’t do anything bad

OSCAR-WINNING actor Morgan Freeman says charges he behaved inappropriately toward women stem from what he deemed to be lighthearted humor.

“I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye,” he said in a statement late Friday.

“All the victims of sexual assault and harassment deserve to be heard. And we need to listen to them,” he said.

“But it is not right to equate horrific incidents of sexual assault with misplaced compliments or humor.”

An investigation published by CNN on Thursday details the 80-year-old actor’s unwanted advances on women during press tours, on movie sets and at his own production company, Revelations Entertainment.

Freeman issued a statement after the CNN report that apologized to those “who felt uncomfortable or disrespected” by his behavior.

Freeman (above) added he would often “joke with and compliment women” in what he felt to be a “light-hearted and humorous way” in an effort to make them feel more comfortable with him.

“Clearly I was not always coming across the way I intended,” he continued. “And that is why I apologized Thursday and continue to apologize to anyone I might have upset, however unintentionally.

“But I also want to be clear: I did not create unsafe work environments. I did not assault women. I did not offer employment or advancement in exchange for sex. Any suggestion that I did so is completely false.”

Eight women have come forward with allegations against Freeman, including a production assistant who said he frequently touched her and made unwanted comments about her looks on the set of “Going in Style” in 2015.

“It was constant comments about the way I look,” she told CNN. The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, also recalled a particularly shocking incident where Freeman “kept trying to lift my skirt up” and asked “if I was wearing any underwear.”