Dr. Phil McGraw is regretting his statement to Entertainment Tonight that Britney Spears was “dire need of both medical and psychological intervention.”

He is also saying that he visited Britney Spears as a family friend and not as a psychologist. Lynn Spears has hit out at the TV doctor saying that he wasn’t invited to make it a public issue.

Here’s what he had to say:

“Was it helpful to the situation? Regrettably, no, I definitely think if I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn’t make any statement at all. Period.”

The TV doc did, however, make it clear that he only regrets speaking out – not his attempts to help the increasingly erratic popstar. (McGraw originally planned to dedicate a show to Spears, but scrapped the idea, calling the situation “too intense.”)

So would he make the same visit again, knowing the controversy it’s caused? Yes, he said. “How could you not?”