Jeremy Clarkson Breaks Silence on Meghan Markle Column: 'Horrified'

The journalist who wrote of his dream that Meghan Markle would be "made to parade naked" through Britain while the crowds chant, "Shame!" and throw "excrement" at her, has broken his silence after facing a wave of public backlash, including from his own daughter.

Jeremy Clarkson, a former presenter of the hit BBC motor-interest show Top Gear, and current star of Amazon's The Grand Tour, wrote an excoriating column about Prince Harry and Meghan for tabloid newspaper The Sun on Saturday, titled One day, Harold the glove puppet will tell the truth about A Woman Talking B*****ks.

In it, he said of Meghan: "I hate her. Not like I hate [First Minister of Scotland] Nicola Sturgeon or [convicted 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."

After a wave of public admonishment for the comments, in light of Meghan's recent breakdown on her hit Netflix series Harry & Meghan in which she described fearing for her life and those of her children after the hatred spawned by tabloid attacks, Clarkson addressed his comments on Twitter.

"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," he said.

"I'm horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future."

Despite stating he is "horrified to have caused so much hurt," Clarkson offered no apology to Meghan in his Twitter posting.

The broadcaster's own daughter publicly separated herself from her father's comments in an Instagram post on Sunday reading: "My views are and have always been clear when it comes to misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by the media. 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."

Tessy Ojo, chief executive of the Diana Award who has close working relationships with both Harry and Prince William, became a leading voice condemning the column and its comments, taking to Twitter to post: "This is vile & depraved! That a public figure is emboldened to write these words about another human is sickening! His confidence that many others share the same level of depravity, is scary! Let's be clear that this is sexualized violence against women! #JeremyClarkson."

Following Clarkson's comments, Queen Camilla came under scrutiny for having attended a party in Mayfair on Wednesday where Clarkson and another critic of Meghan's, Piers Morgan, were also guests among a larger celebrity crowd.

The party was a private event hosted by a friend of the queen consort's prior to Clarkson's column's publication but still saw social media users question her judgement given her work with women's charities.

Commentator Nicola Thorp commented on social media: "Where is the @RoyalFamily statement on @JeremyClarkson's vile comments in his column?

"I thought the Queen Consort was outspoken on issues of misogyny? Will she distance herself from Clarkson...or just invite him round for dinner again? Their silence speaks volumes."

Buckingham Palace has not commented on the content of the column.

Newsweek approached representatives of Meghan Markle and Buckingham Palace for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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