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An article written by media personality Jeremy Clarkson about Meghan Markle and branded “deeply misogynist” has been pulled from both the website and archives of The Sun.
On Friday, one week after the the Top Gear host wrote that he hated the Duchess of Sussex “on a cellular level,” the outlet said it was “sincerely sorry.”
“It provoked a strong response and led to a large number of complaints to IPSO, the independent press regulator,” The Sun noted in a new statement released Friday.
The article was taken down from The Sun‘s website on Monday with an initial message that read: “In light of Jeremy Clarkson’s tweet he has asked us to take last week’s column down.”
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In his article, Clarkson referenced a famous scene from Game of Thrones, writing: “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.”
In a tweet published following the article’s release, Clarkson called it “a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones,” acknowledging that it “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,” Clarkson added.
In its own statement on Friday, The Sun said: “Columnists’ opinions are their own, but as a publisher, we realize that with free expression comes responsibility. We at The Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry.”
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Clarkson’s article came amid the release of Meghan and Prince Harry‘s Netflix docuseries, in which the couple opened up about the social media threats they’ve received in recent years. In one poignant moment, Meghan spoke about having seen a tweet that said: “Meghan just needs to die. Someone needs to kill her. Maybe it should be me.”
“And I was just like, ‘Okay.’ That’s, like, what’s actually out in the world because of people creating hate,” Meghan said in the docuseries.
Clarkson’s article sparked near-immediate backlash from Brits, with more than 6,000 complaints being made to press regulator IPSO about the piece, according to the BBC.
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, who was also named in the article as someone that Clarkson “hates,” called the piece “deeply misogynist.”
“I think what he said about Meghan Markle was deeply misogynist and just downright awful and horrible,” she said, according to The Times. “My overwhelming emotion about guys like Jeremy Clarkson is pity. I mean, what is it that makes somebody so distorted by hate that they end up writing these things? I think that possibly gives an insight into Jeremy Clarkson and the kind of person he is. So maybe he just needs to take a step back from things and just think about life a bit more.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan took to Twitter to offer his own condemnation of Clarkson, writing: “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.”
