Sarah Silverman has apologised to Paris Hilton for joking about her DUI arrest during the 2007 MTV Movie Awards

At the ceremony, Sarah said: "I heard that to make her feel comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I just worry that she's gonna break her teeth on those things.”

This week, Paris and her sister Nicky Hilton looked back on the event, saying it was “really hard” to cope with the comments people were making about her arrest.

Paris explained: "I literally wanted to run out of the entire room, but I just was trying to be strong and sit there as the whole audience is laughing. It was so painful, especially with what I was going through in my life, to then have people be so mean about it. It was really hard."

And in response, Sarah has now issued an apology to Paris, insisting she “immediately” regretted the joke as soon as she saw how hurt Paris looked in the audience.

Sarah claims she wrote a letter a few days later to offer her apologies but doesn’t believe Paris ever received it.

Speaking on her ‘Sarah Silverman Podcast’, she said: "The crowd went bananas, and while I was thrilled at the success of my monologue, I remember spotting her in the audience, I really do, and I remember seeing that look on her face and my heart sank. There was a person under there. A couple days later I wrote her a letter apologising, felt awful and I never heard back, I certainly wouldn't expect to anyways.

“I regretted the jokes not years later, but kind of immediately. I wrote to let her know, but I know now that the letter didn't get to her. So, here I am, 14 years later, telling you, Paris, that I am really sorry. I was then and I am, much more completely and with far more understanding, I think, now.

“I felt it the second I saw your face that night. It feels terrible to know you have hurt someone and it's important to make it right. So, I hope this does that."

The ’Wreck-It Ralph’ star then called the joke “ugly”, and said she has been trying to “change with the times” over the last 14 years.

She continued: "I can't imagine what you were going through at the time. My understanding of humanity through the lens of my work as a comedian had not yet merged and I'm sorry I hurt you. Comedy is not evergreen. We can't change the past, so what's crucial is that we change with the times. I'm super down with reflecting on the past and my part in perpetuating real ugly s***.

"I've actually dedicated the past several years trying to do comedy that attempts to marry hard hitting jokes with actual heart. Back then, the consensus seemed to be that was not possible and I fully accepted that."