British broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson issued an apology Monday for comments he made about Meghan Markle after facing backlash for content he posted to an online column.
“Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it,” Clarkson wrote to Twitter. The column containing the divisive comments has since been taken down at Clarkson’s request, according to the BBC. More than 12,000 complaints flooded the press regulator when Clarkson spoke about Markle, saying he hated her “on a cellular level.”
“I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future,” 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.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) December 19, 2022
Clarkson’s comments were posted shortly after the release of the last three episodes of Netflix’s docuseries “Harry & Meghan.”
“At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] 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,” Clarkson wrote.
“Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way,” he wrote. “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,” Clarkson said in the article, according to the BBC. (RELATED: Prince Harry Calls Out The Royal Family’s Behavior And The Queen’s Unwillingness To Take A Stand)
Clarkson attempted to explain his word selection and then profusely apologized for his error.
“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,” Clarkson said.
Ipso, the independent press standards organization, says the complaints against Clarkson are being assessed according to its standard procedure, the BBC reported.