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British TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson says he is “horrified to have caused so much hurt” after a hate-filled column he wrote about Meghan Markle attracted more than 12,000 complaints.
In his Sunday column in British tabloid The Sun, Clarkson wrote of Meghan: “I hate her. Not like I hate [Scottish First Minister] Nicola Sturgeon or [serial killer] Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.”
“At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she 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.
“Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way,” he added.
“But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she’s pretty cool.
“They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.”
The visceral column sparked an avalanche of complaints to the press regulator (the BBC reports that the total number of complaints to the regulator in 2021 was 14,355).
Clarkson’s own daughter, Emily Clarkson, quickly moved to slam her father’s words.
She said in an online post that she is “against everything that my dad wrote”.
“My views are and have always been clear when it comes to misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by the media,” she said, in a statement shared on her Instagram story.
“I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything that my dad wrote about Meghan Markle and I remain standing in support of those that are targeted with online hatred.”
Clarkson gained worldwide fame as presenter of motoring show Top Gear. The BBC dropped him in 2015 for an “unprovoked physical and verbal attack” on a colleague.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are officially known, stepped down from royal duties in March 2020, saying they wanted to forge new lives in the US away from media harassment.
In a six-part Netflix documentary series that concluded last week, Meghan spoke about her treatment by the media leaving her feeling suicidal.
In a statement posted on Twitter on Monday, Clarkson said: “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people.”
“I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future,” added Clarkson, who is known for being outspoken and controversial.
Ms Sturgeon and London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined the public condemnation.
Even British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak weighed in on the debate, saying “I think for everyone in public life, language matters”.
