Shannon Sharpe came out publicly about a sexual encounter with an unknown woman that he accidentally livestreamed to his 3 million-plus Instagram followers this week. He said he was “ashamed” but was just “a healthy, active man.”

The NFL great, former Fox Sports host and current ESPN anchor, said on his “Nightcap” podcast Wednesday that he had never used Instagram Live before and didn’t know what had happened until an assistant who manages the account stopped the stream after a minute and a half. The camera didn’t show what happened, but the audio clearly shows an encounter between Sharpe and an unidentified woman.

“Um, I’m embarrassed, of course,” Sharpe said, speaking with guest Chad Ochocinco. “As someone who is extremely, extremely private, um, and to have one of your most intimate details — the audio — out there for the whole world to hear, I’m embarrassed for a number of reasons.”

Sharpe said he had called his children, colleagues and closest friends to apologize, but had not apologized for his busy schedule.

“I’m very disappointed in myself — not because of the act,” Sharpe said. “I think there are millions and billions of people of consenting age who participate in activities. But — but to have your most intimate details on the audio — I’m disappointed in myself. I’ve disappointed a lot of people.”

Although Sharpe initially suggested that his Instagram account had been hacked, he immediately acknowledged the accident when he saw with his own eyes what he had been broadcasting.

“This was not staged,” he said. “I walked in, threw my phone on the bed and did something,” he said. “I didn’t know about IG Live — I’ve never been on IG Live. I’ve never turned on IG Live, so I don’t know how it works. And then all of a sudden my other phone went off and people were calling me FaceTime, and I’ve never FaceTimed a day in my life. And it wasn’t working — I was like, why are you guys calling me FaceTime?”

Eventually, a marketing assistant got him on the phone.

“You know, I was like, ‘What am I on IG Live for? I don’t have an IG Live button.’ He was like, ‘Uh, they can hear it.’ … Man, my heart sank. It sank.”

Sharpe said he quickly called ESPN, with whom he signed a multi-year contract in June.

“After a while I thought, I just have to tell them the truth,” Sharpe said. “I said, ‘I just have to tell them the truth. My phone wasn’t hacked, uh, it wasn’t a — it wasn’t a prank. It was that I was a healthy, active man.'”