British actor Gregg Sulkin has blamed hackers for posting a racial slur on one of his social media accounts after having his phone stolen on Friday (18Sep15).

The Doctor Zhivago star, who is dating actress Bella Thorne, hit headlines last week after he appeared to share a picture of the couple on Snapchat along with the caption, "What up n**ga".

However, Sulkin has since apologised to fans and insisted he wasn't responsible for the inappropriate language.

Taking to Twitter.com to clear up the controversy on Saturday (20Sep15), he wrote, "Unfourtunately (sic) my social media accounts were hacked yesterday and my phone was stolen. Things were posted to my account that I find appaling (sic) and unacceptable.

"I believe that being part of a religious minority myself, racism is an ignorance that I do not and will not tolerate in my life. I would like to apologize to my fans and anyone that was offended by the postings that were unfortunately beyond my control."

Thorne also jumped to her boyfriend's defence, adding, "Omg (Oh my God) Gregg lost his phone whoever is tweeting obvi (obviously) isn't him #hacked (sic)".

The Snapchat scandal wasn't the only drama the couple faced on Saturday - the actors were also left stranded for several hours at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport after their Virgin Atlantic flight to London was delayed. The disruption occurred after their plane's wing clipped a fence as they prepared for take off.