Milo Yiannopoulos resigned from his position as senior editor at Breitbart News amid a controversy over comments in which he appeared to defend pedophilia.

"Breitbart News has stood by me when others caved," Yiannopoulos said in a statement this afternoon.

"I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone," he added.

Milo resigns from Breitbart. pic.twitter.com/gtSfTRIi1l — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 21, 2017

The self-styled provocateur was disinvited from speaking at CPAC, which will take place this week, and his lucrative book deal was canceled after the comments surfaced.

Yiannopoulos, 33, grew up in Kent, England and later emigrated to the United States.

Until his resignation, he oversaw the Breitbart Tech vertical, and occasionally wrote stories about gay rights.

In 2015, he wrote a somewhat controversial piece, in which he urged fellow homosexuals to "get back in the closet" and called himself a "gay exceptionalist."

Yiannopoulos was previously the subject of controversy when he was forced to cancel a speech at University of California-Berkeley due to violent demonstrations.

Reading from a prepared statement Tuesday afternoon, Yiannopoulous confirmed he had been sexually abused by two men while in his teens, and that one was a priest.

"I don't view myself as a victim, but I am one," he said.

He said he reviewed the posted tapes and said that "in the proper context," they don't match what has been reported about his comments.

"My experience as a victim led me to believe I could say almost anything on this subject," he added.

In the tapes, he was discussing his own relationship while a 17-year-old with a 29-year-old man, he said, adding that such a relationship has the possibility of helping the younger man escape from a lack of support at home over their sexual preference.

He said his work and his speaking tours have done more for gay people in "flyover states" than pro-gay special interest groups.

After resigning from Breitbart News, Yiannopoulos said he will focus his work on entertainment and education rather than journalism.

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