Bush apologizes over actress sex assault complaint

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush on Wednesday apologized after actress Heather Lind accused him of sexually assaulting her during a TV show promotion three years ago.

"President Bush would never - under any circumstance - intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind," Jim McGrath, a Bush spokesman, said in a statement issued to HuffPost, a politically liberal American news website.

Lind said in a now-deleted Instagram post on Tuesday that the former president, now 93-year-old, "touched me from behind," then did it again and that former first lady Barbara Bush was aware.

Lind said at the time she was posing with Bush, who was in a wheelchair, for a photo-op during a private screening.

"He sexually assaulted me," she wrote in the post, according to local media reports.

"He didn't shake my hand," Lind wrote. "He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again. Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say 'not again.' His security guard told me I shouldn't have stood next to him for the photo."

"It seems to me a President's power is in his or her capacity to enact positive change, actually help people, and serve as a symbol of our democracy. He relinquished that power when he used it against me and, judging from the comments of those around him, countless other women before me. What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn't so different from a President really," Lind wrote.

Her accusation follows the wave of recent public sexual harassment and assault allegations against film executive Harvey Weinstein, director James Toback and others.