Hours before Jeremy Clarkson’s press conference to promote reality TV show Clarkson’s Farm, the former Top Gear host posted a fresh apology on Instagram about the column he wrote on Meghan Markle.
It was the second time he had sought to make amends for the December 16 column, titled One day, Harold the glove puppet will tell the truth about A Woman Talking B—–ks, in which Clarkson suggested Prince Harry’s wife, the Duchess of Sussex, be made to “parade naked” through Britain while people “throw lumps of excrement at her”.
“I really am sorry. All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on,” he wrote on Monday afternoon.
He revealed Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, was “incandescent” about the column, over which he said there were calls for him to be sacked or charged with a hate crime.
“ITV, which makes Who Wants To Be a Millionaire [of which he has been host since 2018] and Amazon, who make the farm show and The Grand Tour, were incandescent.”
The virtual press conference for the second season of Clarkson’s Farm – about another year in the life of his Diddly Squat farm in Chipping Norton – was cancelled.
Leading entertainment news outlet Variety revealed the streamer was unlikely to work with Clarkson on future seasons of Clarkson’s Farm and The Grand Tour beyond those already commissioned.
Put simply, the streaming giant may be cutting ties and he’ll have to find a new home for his high-performing farm and motoring shows.
“This means that the notorious … presenter likely won’t be appearing in any new shows on Prime Video beyond 2024 (though there’s every chance a final Grand Tour episode could carry over into 2025),” it reported on January 16.
Prime already has a number of episodes in the works with Clarkson, “but the decision effectively means that Clarkson’s Farm will end with Season 3″ (which has already started filming and will be broadcast in 2024).
“It also means that motoring format The Grand Tour, one of Prime Video’s biggest shows, will come to an end.
“Variety understands the series will conclude after four more special episodes – the last of which is expected to land in late 2024.”
The New Daily has reached out to Prime Video for confirmation on whether Clarkson’s Farm remains on track for broadcast as scheduled on February 10 (as announced in September).
Clarkson’s ‘land mine’ column sent shockwaves
After the column was published, Britain’s Independent Press Standards Organisation reported, as of 5pm on December 20, it had received more than 20,800 complaints about the opinion piece.
“We will follow our usual processes to examine the complaints we have received. This will take longer than usual because of the volume of complaints,” it wrote on its website.
The column was removed at Clarkson’s request, and The Sun issued an apology on December 23 after more than 60 cross-party MPs wrote to the editor.
“I was mortified and so was everyone else,” Clarkson wrote in his grovelling apology on January 16.
“My phone went mad. Very close friends were furious. Even my own [heavily pregnant] daughter [Emily] took to Instagram to denounce me.”
He emailed Harry and Meghan on Christmas Day, saying he was “baffled” by what was being said on TV but that the language he’d used in his column was “disgraceful” and he was “profoundly sorry”.
During Prince Harry’s media blitz last week to promote his memoir, Spare, he spoke about the column to ITV’s Tom Bradby.
“When we’re talking about accountability, you know … the Jeremy Clarkson article … what he said was horrific and is hurtful and cruel towards my wife,” he said.
“It also encourages other people around the UK and around the world, men particularly, to go and think that it’s acceptable to treat women that way.”
Harry and Meghan also responded to the second apology.
Clarkson went on to explain about where his head was at that “fateful day”.
“Usually, I read what I’ve written to someone else before filing, but I was home alone on that fateful day, and in a hurry.
“So when I’d finished, I just pressed send. And when the column appeared the next day, the land mine exploded.
“It was a slow rumble to start with and I ignored it. But then the rumble got louder. So I picked up a copy of The Sun to see what all the fuss was about.
“We’ve all been there, I guess. In that precise moment when we suddenly realise we’ve completely messed up. You are sweaty and cold at the same time. And your head pounds. And you feel sick. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Had I really said that?
“It was horrible.
“I was very angry with myself because in all of those controversial days on Top Gear, when I was accused of all sorts of things, it was very rarely sexism.”
In 2016, Clarkson lost his job at the BBC after the Top Gear host apologised and settled a lawsuit with a member of the production team he physically attacked a year earlier.
Clarkson, who built a global fan base as presenter, struck and verbally abused Oisin Tymon during filming, leading the BBC to announce in March it would not be renewing his contract.
“We never did ‘women can’t park’ gags, for instance. Or suggested that powerful cars were only for men,” Clarkson said.
“I’m just not sexist and I abhor violence against women. And yet I seemed to be advocating just that.”
New subject matter?
Clarkson still has deals to write weekly columns for The Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers.
In his lengthy Instagram post, he’s also thinking out loud about future subject matter.
“So can I move on now? Not sure. It’s hard to be interesting and vigilant at the same time.
“You never hear peals of laughter coming from a health and safety seminar. But I promise you this, I will try.
“Who knows? Very soon now I shall be a grandfather so in future, maybe I’ll just write about that.”
