Rapper Kanye West and photographer Annie Leibovitz have released a joint statement after West accused the photographer of pulling out of his wedding at the last minute.

The outspoken musician slammed Leibovitz this week, alleging that she refused to photograph his Italian wedding to Kim Kardashian the day before the event because she was ‘scared of celebrity’.

• Kanye West’s wedding photo woes

According to the statement, the high profile photographer and rapper were in negotiation for weeks but never reached an agreement before the event.

“Although Kanye expressed frustration that he was not able to collaborate with Annie Leibovitz at his recent wedding, he is not assigning blame, and is not accusing Annie in any way,” says the statement from Def Jam.

“Annie would have been happy to do the portrait but she was never confirmed,” said a rep for Leibovitz in a report by the New York Post.

West said he spent four days of his honeymoon perfecting photos of the wedding because his wife was “importantant to the internet”.

A wedding photo from the lavish Italian event went on to be the most popular photo on social media site Instagram, with more than 2.2 million Likes.