Jeremy Meeks has arrived back in Los Angeles after being barred from entering the UK.
The model was turned around at Heathrow Airport after arriving with his wife Melissa and manager Jim Jordan for a magazine launch in London.
Meeks, who shot to fame as a result of his mugshot, was put on an American Airlines flight back to the US.
He had arrived from California to attend a launch party after featuring on the front cover of Man About Town which is due out on Thursday.
After landing in LA he told DailyMail.com: ‘I’m very, very saddened and confused. I went down there [London] with high hopes for the experience and the UK.
‘I really wanted to go there. I still don’t understand quite what happened but I know there’s no ill will. They’re [Border Force] doing their job.’
Explaining what happened he said: ‘They just detained me and interrogated me and searched me.’
Meeks went viral in 2014 after his mugshot was put online by Stockton Police Department when he was arrested on federal gun charges after he was found with a semiautomatic pistol.
He was sentenced to 27 months in prison but after being released he was handed a modelling contract.
Mr Jordan, from White Cross Talent Management said that Meeks had a work visa and was given a letter by his parole officer.