Amir Khan regrets impulsive claim over Anthony Joshua affair

Amir Khan says he has not spoken to Anthony Joshua since accusing the latter of having an affair with his wife Faryal Makhdoom in 2017. The British boxing legend has now claimed that he regrets his explosive tweets calling out the former unified heavyweight champion in public.

The 35-year-old former world champion revealed that he lost a "good friend" by making what he now admits are baseless accusations. Khan posted a series of tweets accusing his compatriot of an affair and made it clear to Makhdoom that they were getting a divorce.

The couple has since reconciled and now share three children together, Muhammad Zaviyar Khan, Lamaisah Khan, and Alayna Khan. Joshua, meanwhile, has always denied the allegations, which the Bolton-born boxer now regrets making, after revealing that they have not spoken since.

"I had the problem with Anthony Joshua which I feel really bad for because at the end of the day I put him in the firing line for no reason," Khan told Gary Neville on Sky Bet's The Overlap.

"I mean he was a friend of mine and since then we've never spoken. So I lost a good friend through that as well."

Khan explained that the incident occurred at a time when he and his wife were not on talking terms. Makhdoom, at that time, showed him messages from a number of fighters including Joshua, which triggered the meltdown and subsequent accusations.

The Bolton native accepts that the messages from Joshua were not as he interpreted and were possibly simply out of "respect". He also claimed to have fallen out with his friends over his impulsive actions against the former heavyweight champion.

The former professional boxer acknowledged that it was not his finest hour, telling Neville that his distrust of people saw him not only fall out with his wife at the time, but also with most of his family.

"I become[sic] too selfish. I started making a lot of mistakes," the Briton said speaking of his regret. "I started turning nasty - becoming a bad person really. It was never me and I was never happy with myself doing all this stuff."