In December 2022, the English moderator Jeremy Clarkson (63) caused a stir with a guest article in the tabloid “The Sun”. The British Press Inspectorate (IPSO) has now classified Clarkson’s column, in which he wrote about Duchess Meghan (41), as sexist. The IPSO has ruled that the post was partly written pejoratively in relation to Meghan’s gender, according to a press release.
It was found “that the imagery used by the columnist in this article was humiliating and degrading” towards Duchess Meghan, IPSO Chairman Lord Faulks said. The highly questionable contribution had not only far exceeded the limits of good taste for Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry (38). More than 25,100 complaints from readers, a new record according to the BBC, were received after the hate column was published, IPSO chief executive Charlotte Dewar said in the statement.
Among other things, Clarkson had written that he hates her and dreams of the day when [Duchess Meghan] will be paraded naked through the streets of every city in Britain while the crowd shouted ‘Shame!’ shouts and throws excrement at them”. The presenter, who is known as a provocateur, later apologized via Twitter, describing the passage as an “awkward reference” to a scene from the series “Game of Thrones”.
The “Sun”, which violated editorial standards and now had to publish a summary, apologized at the end of 2022. The article was deleted, I regret the publication and I am “sincerely sorry” for the newspaper. This apology from the tabloid was “not much more than a PR stunt,” a spokesman for Harry and Meghan later said, according to a report by the Guardian. “While the public absolutely deserves the paper’s regret for the dangerous comments, we wouldn’t be in this situation if The Sun didn’t continually exploit hate, violence and misogyny for profit.”
Harry and Meghan apparently did not accept another apology from Clarkson. In January, the presenter revealed that he emailed Harry and Meghan over Christmas to apologize directly to them. A spokesman for the Sussexes said, according to “BBC”, that Clarkson only spoke to Harry. The couple’s rep said they needed to address a “persistent pattern” of the moderator writing this article, “spreading hateful rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy myths and misogyny.”
