Former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson apologises for Meghan Markle column
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Jeremy Clarkson wrote in his apology that he sent his column to The Sun without reading it out to anyone.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
LONDON – Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson on Monday apologised for a much-criticised column he wrote in The Sun tabloid saying he hated Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle.
Clarkson, 62, wrote in December that he dreamed of the day when Markle “is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant ‘shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.
The piece triggered a wave of protest and became Britain’s Independent Press Standards Organisation’s most complained-about article.
Prince Harry said in a television interview broadcast earlier in January that it was “horrific and... hurtful and cruel towards my wife”.
He added that it encouraged misogyny around the world.
Clarkson wrote on Instagram: “I really am sorry... This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.”
In the column commenting on Prince Harry and Markle’s Netflix documentary series, Clarkson said of Markle: “I hate her on a cellular level.”
Clarkson gained global fame by presenting the popular BBC motoring show Top Gear, but was dropped as host in 2015 for assaulting a male producer.
He now makes a similar show for Amazon, as well as a documentary series about farming.
Clarkson wrote in his apology that he sent his column to The Sun without reading it out to anyone, as he usually does, and realised only later that what he wrote was horrible.
“I abhor violence against women,” he said, but conceded the column “seemed to be advocating for just that”.
Known for his provocative columns often espousing right-wing political views, the presenter also claimed that he had been referring to a scene from the Game Of Thrones (2011 to 2019) series.
But he said he forgot to specify this.
The Sun in late December said it was sincerely sorry for the publication, and removed the column from its website and archive.
Prince Harry and Markle said on Christmas Eve that the tabloid had not been in touch with them directly, slamming the newspaper’s statement on its website as nothing more than a publicity stunt.
Clarkson said on Monday that he e-mailed the couple on Christmas Day to apologise, telling them “the language I’d used in my column was disgraceful and that I was profoundly sorry”.
He vowed to try to be vigilant in future, saying he may switch to writing about becoming a grandfather. AFP
