Canadian singer Shania Twain has apologised for an “awkward” remark quoted in a Guardian interview, in which she said she would have voted for Trump if she could have.

On Twitter on Sunday, she said the question caught her off guard and she regrets her answer. “I am passionately against discrimination of any kind and hope it’s clear from the choices I have made, and the people I stand with, that I do not hold any common moral beliefs with the current president.”

In the profile, the singer candidly discussed her divorce from long-time collaborator Robert “Mutt” Lange as well as her traumatic upbringing, which included being sexually and physically abused by her stepfather.

But towards the end of the article, she was asked about the US election and said she “would have voted for [Trump] because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest”.

“Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn’t be able to have both. If I were voting, I just don’t want bullshit. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent. And politics has a reputation of not being that, right?”

While the quote didn’t lead the article, it was picked up by other outlets and shared widely on social media before Twain issued a series of tweets apologising for the statement.

“I would like to apologise to anybody I have offended,” she wrote. “The question caught me off guard. As a Canadian, I regret answering this unexpected question without giving my response more context.

“I was trying to explain, in a response to a question about the election, that my limited understanding was that the president talked to a portion of America like an accessible person they could relate to, as he was not a politician,” she continued.

“My answer was awkward, but certainly should not be taken as representative of my values nor does it mean I endorse him.”