Kawakawa Fox-Reo has been forced to apologise after fans took offence at a recent post he shared on Instagram.
The 24-year-old Home and Away actor shared a since-deleted photo of himself at the gym on March 30, captioning it: 'I love steroids'.
According to a report by The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, the post was deleted after the publication contacted Channel Seven, with Kawakawa then issuing an apology.
'I know I have made a serious error in judgement with this post and I have deleted it,' he told The Daily Telegraph.
'I realise my attempt at humour was misguided and misleading and sincerely apologise.'
The New Zealand-born actor plays Nikau Parata on the hit Channel Seven soap, and has amassed over 53,000 followers on Instagram.
The offending post received over 2,000 likes and 36 comments in the 12 days before it was deleted.
But not everyone saw the humour, with one Instagram user claiming she was unfollowing Kawakawa, while another branded it 'idiotic'.
'Surely this is a joke? Pretty sure your producers wouldn't be a fan of you advertising roids [steroids],' commented one fan.
Added another: 'Ur [You're] a cool guy but please don't advertise drugs. Young kids look up to u [you].'
Kawakawa has previously spoken about feeling insecure about his body, admitting he was 'nervous' to film shirtless scenes for Home and Away.
'I have always been a skinny kid. I've always had quite a fast metabolism,' he confessed.
'When I first started I was a bit nervous and self-conscious to be honest. But I have learnt over time just to get over myself and do my job.
'I've learnt to love myself a little bit more in the process of that, too. Right now it is not a big deal at all, whereas it used to be something that I was scared about.
'I was self-conscious about how skinny I was, worried about what people would say. When you love yourself enough though, who cares what anybody else thinks.'
