Actor James Nesbitt has described sectarian graffiti targeting him as "a bit unnerving" and said 'it really saddens me".
The message threatening the Cold Feet actor was daubed on a wall in Portrush, Co Antrim.
It appeared weeks after Nesbitt was the keynote speaker at an event in Dublin organised by a campaign group advocating for a united Ireland.
The threat to the Northern Ireland-born actor referenced the King and Crown and also included a hostile reference to the Pope.
Speaking to the BBC this afternoon, Mr Nesbitt described how he was made aware of the graffiti while traveling home from a holiday.
He said: "I actually was travelling back from holiday yesterday and I knew very little about it but my flight was delayed and as a result of that people were able to fill me in on the imagery.
“It was a bit unnerving and it also saddens me a bit. It really saddens me because I am sorry this has been brought to Portrush, to my neighbours, brought to a community I love.
"I really love Portrush and I think and hope it doesn’t represent what the majority of people think there. What saddens me more, in a way, is some people may have misunderstood my positions.
"In a democracy people are entitled to engage in a public conversation about the future, that is all I was attempting to do when I took part in the Ireland’s Future debate. I was simply having a conversation about what this island might look like.
"I certainly don't promote any solution and don’t support any outcome. It saddens me people maybe didn’t fully analyse what I said.
"I am only an actor at the end of the day. I am given a platform and I could decide not to use that platform, I decide to do because I have never really left Ireland. It is my home I love it. I think there has to be a debate.”
Earlier today, a spokesman for the PSNI said: “Police in Coleraine received a report of graffiti on a wall in the Bushmills Road area of Portrush on Wednesday 19th October.
“The graffiti is believed to have been written on the wall some time between 5pm on Tuesday and 7.30pm on Wednesday evening and is being treated as a hate crime.”
Officers have asked anyone with information to come forward.
