Domenico Dolce, an Italian designer for the fashion house Dolce & Gabbana, apologized Friday for controversial remarks he made earlier this year about same-sex couples adopting and in-vitro fertilization, the Huffington Post reports.

The designer and his business partner Stefano Gabbana came under fire in March when Dolce said "we oppose gay adoptions" and "the only family is the traditional one." Dolce and Gabbana are both gay and used to be romantic partners.

Dolce also criticized children born via IVF.

"You are born to a mother and a father, or at least that's how it should be," he said. "I call children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalog."

But in an interview with Vogue last week, Dolce said he regrets what he said.

"I've done some soul-searching," he said. "I've talked to Stefano a lot about this. I realized my words were inappropriate, and I apologize."

He later added: "They are just kids. You don't need labels, baby labels. I think everybody chooses for themselves. I don't know everything about IVF, but I love it when people are happy. It's like medicine. Science has been put on the table to help people."

After his initial comments, Dolce & Gabbana received a backlash with a number of celebrities speaking out about the fashion label, including Sir Elton John who called for a D&G boycott. Nevertheless, both designers defended their beliefs.

This isn't the first time the designers have apologized. Days after the controversy in March, the men told CNN they "love gay people" and "gay adoption."