James Corden apologizes again for bad behavior in a restaurant and promises to return

James Corden heeded his father’s advice and officially apologized on air for his nasty behavior at a New York restaurant, putting the matter to rest…hopefully!!

The TV host began his “Late Show” on Monday by noting that his father, who was in the audience, told him to own up to his mistakes after he retracted an earlier apology to Balthazar’s owner. Keith McNally.

And like a dutiful son, that’s exactly what Corden did. “Whenever these moments happen to me, I like to adopt a rather British attitude. Never complain, never explain. But as my dad remarked on Saturday, he said, ‘Son, you’ve been complaining.’ Therefore, you may need to explain.’ Look, if you make a mistake, you have to take responsibility.”

Corden then went into apology mode, recounting what happened in a French beer bar on 1 of 2 occasions when he was described as a “cretin”. He said he ate at Balthazar in Soho a few weeks ago… and the waiter came to the table three times with the wrong order for his wife, who has food allergies.

The comic said he made a “rude comment” to a waiter “in the heat of the moment” which he finally admitted was WRONG during a verbal spat. “I didn’t yell or scream. I didn’t get up. I did not call anyone names or use derogatory words. I went around thinking I didn’t do anything wrong, right? But the truth is that I did. I made a rude comment and it was wrong. It was an unnecessary comment. It was server-unfriendly.”

Corden also briefly mentioned another time he lost his temper after finding a hair in his food. He said he immediately called McNally and apologized after the restaurant owner posted on IG that Corden had been banned for his bad behavior.

As we reported … McNally later lifted the ban, but then Corden retracted his apology during an interview with the New York Times. In response, McNally told TMZ that Corden should “apologize to the young servers he abused,” declining to say whether the ban would be reimposed.