Newspaper Apologizes for Attack on Meghan Markle

UPDATE Dec 23, 2022 4:55 PM CST

A UK newspaper has apologized for a column ripping Meghan Markle and removed all traces of Jeremy Clarkson's piece. "We at the Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry," says a statement released Friday, per the Guardian. "The article has been removed from our website and archives." It did not say whether the Sun has taken any action against Clarkson. Among the many who criticized the column was Clarkson's daughter Emily. "I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle," she said.

Dec 20, 2022 2:02 PM CST

Jeremy Clarkson is a columnist in the UK who really, really doesn't like Meghan Markle. But Clarkson—also known for TV stints on Top Gear and the Grand Tour—is now under fire for writing a scathing column to that effect, one that ran last Friday and that critics say went way too far.

• "I hate her," he wrote, per Reuters. "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." (As the Los Angeles Times notes, this was a reference to a famous scene on Game of Thrones.)

The criticism came quickly after the column was posted at the Sun, and the newspaper says it pulled the piece at Clarkson's request. The UK's Independent Press Standards Organization had received more than 17,000 complaints as of Tuesday morning, per the Guardian, a record number. Clarkson, 62, attempted to make amends with a statement on Monday, per the BBC, though he stopped short of an explicit apology: "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."

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Not good enough, say more than 60 members of parliament in a letter to Sun editor Victoria Newton. "We cannot allow this type of behavior to go unchecked any longer," the letter reads. "We welcome the Sun’s retraction of the article and we now demand action is taken against Mr. Clarkson and an unreserved apology to Ms. Markle immediately." Markle has not commented on the controversy. In the new Netflix special with husband Prince Harry, she spoke of how the media's brutal treatment of her in the UK led to suicidal thoughts, notes Reuters. (More Meghan Markle stories.)