“Horrified”: Jeremy Clarkson apologises after Meghan Markle comments
Grand Tour presenter says sorry after column in which he said he hated Meghan Markle "on a cellular level."
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Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm presenter Jeremy Clarkson has issued a statement following his inflammatory comments about Meghan Markle in a column for The Sun.
On Monday, he wrote wrote of Markle: “I hate her. Not like I hate [Scottish National Party leader] Nicola Sturgeon or [British serial killer] Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.”
He continued, referencing an infamous Game of Thrones scene involving Lena Headey’s Cersei: “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.”
But he was roundly criticised by British commentators, with even his own daughter Emily Clarkson, makingclear on her official Instagram stories that she did not agree with her father’s comments.
“My views are and have always been clear when it comes to misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by the media,” wrote Emily Clarkson. “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’s apology read, “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it,” he tweeted. “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.”
Amazon Prime Video is not expected to comment nor on Clarkson’s views.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said of the comments: “As Jeremy Clarkson should well know – words have consequences. The words in his piece are no joke — they’re dangerous and inexcusable. We are in an epidemic of violence against women and girls and men with powerful voices must do better than this.”
More than 6,000 complaints have been made to the press regulator. The Sun told BBC News it doesn’t have anything further to add.
Source: Variety
4 Responses
Yes, I’m not a fan of Meghan, but what he said was absolutely disgusting. A man his age using those words in print, against a young lady, doesn’t score any points with me. I’m for old fashioned values and he is not using them. So I wouldn’t read his articles even if his politics are closer to mine than Meghans.
The more oxygen the media and people give him the more attention he is getting. Piers Moran is another who makes vile comments about women. It’s just classic “look at me” syndrome these type of people who are called “celebrities” rely on for publicity to try and stay relevant. No accounting for being a jerk.
I can’t work out if he is seeking publicity or just plain stupid. Regardless no one should be openly making statements that detail violence against women and he deserves to be censured.
Well, Jeremy has made successful TV career playing a motoring hoon ( even though he is a competent high performance driver) and is also fond of making jibes, especially at the expense of his friend and sidekick Richard Hammond while they were both on the First Gear show. Mr. Clarkson’s politics is in favour of personal freedom and is against the ban culture, so I suppose one could say that Jeremy was looking to attract public attention by exploiting a trending high profile media subject and a lot more people will want to read his columns in the Sunday Times and Sun because of that, though obviously there are some who also want to cancel him.