Ed O'Neill has hilariously revealed how he failed to recognise pop megastar Britney Spears when she asked him for a picture at LAX airport last year. In the picture Spears is all smiles as she posed with the ‘Modern Family’ actor, but O'Neill looked a little more subdued, probably because he had no idea who he was posing with.

During his appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show on Monday (June 13), the host showed the picture Spears had tweeted last March which was captioned, ‘Fancy running into this guy! Such a sweetheart!!’ and asked O'Neill to explain what happened.

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”I was at LAX, I was travelling alone to Hawaii and I was waiting for my flight to board and I saw a woman approach me,” he said. “She came up and said oh Mr. O'Neill I love Modern Family. You're my favorite on the show.”

“And I was like, 'Well I'm here, I'm the only one here'...you know.” Spears then asked the actor if he wouldn't mind taking a picture with her and O'Neill of course said yes and told her to sit on the arm of his char.

O'Neill says Spears “couldn’t have been nicer,” but still, he didn't realise who she was until he got a text from his manager the next day. “So the next day, my manager texts me and goes, 'What is this? 53,000 likes. It's Britney Spears.’"

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“I didn't know it was her," O'Neill told DeGeneres. “I mean. Look at the look on my face. Do I look like I'm sitting with Britney Spears?” O'Neill added that his daughter Sophia labelled him a ‘moron’ for not recognising the singer and that he later called Spears’ manager to apologise for failing to recognise one of the most famous women in the world.