‘Mortified’ Jeremy Clarkson pleads for forgiveness with uncharacteristic apology over Meghan Markle comments
In a truly surprising move, Jeremy Clarkson said that he's emailed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to apologise for his 'disgusting' column in The Sun.
When I say surprising, I mean Clarkson's not exactly known for being humble.
The ordeal started last month when the Top Gear host's hostility towards the Duchess of Sussex all came out in a scathing column in which he said he hated her on a 'cellular level'.
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Speaking about Prince Harry, he wrote: "I actually feel rather sorry for him because today he’s just a glove puppet with no more control over what he says or does than Basil Brush.
"Meghan, though, is a different story. I hate her.
"Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level."
But this was just the warm up.
He continued: "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."
Yikes.
It didn't take long for the backlash to build, so much so that Clarkson's own daughter criticised his hate-fuelled tirade.
The column was quickly removed from the paper's website, and although he initially apologised, he's now shared a more personal apology to the royals.
In a lengthy statement posted on Instagram, he said: "One of the strange things I’ve noticed in recent times is that whenever an MP or a well-known person is asked to apologise for something, no matter how heartfelt or profound that apology may be, it’s never enough for the people who called for it in the first place.
"So I’m going to try and buck the trend this morning with an apology for the things I said in a Sun column recently about Meghan Markle. 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 went on to say that while he normally reads what he sends beforehand - as any writer should - that day he was in a hurry and so he just hit the 'send' button.
"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," he said.
"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 knew what had happened straight away. I'd been thinking of a scene in Games Of Thrones, but I'd forgotten to mention this. So it looked like I was actually calling for revolting violence to rain down on Meghan's head.
"I was very angry with myself because in all those controversial days on Top Gear, when I was accused of all sorts of things, it was very rarely sexism.
"We never did 'women can't park' gags for instance. Or suggested that powerful cars were only for men. And I was thrilled when Jodie Kidd and Ellen MacArthur set fastest-ever laps in our reasonably-priced car.
"I'm just not sexist and I abhor violence against women. And yet I seemed to be advocating just that.
"I was mortified and so was everyone else. My phone went mad. Very close friends were furious. Even my own daughter took to Instagram to denounce me."
Clarkson went on to describe the continued backlash as people called for him to be sacked.
"I therefore wrote to everyone who works with me saying how sorry I was and then on Christmas morning, I e-mailed Harry and Meghan in California to apologise to them too," he continued.
"I said I was baffled by what they had been saying on TV but that the language I’d used in my column was disgraceful and that I was profoundly sorry.
"Over the last thirty years, I have written very nearly five thousand newspaper and magazine columns, so it was inevitable that one day, I'd do a Harry Kane and sky one of the damn things. Which is what happened with the piece about Meghan."
Topics: Jeremy Clarkson, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry
Daisy Phillipson