Prince Harry's Pal Slams Jeremy Clarkson's 'Lame' Meghan Markle Apology

A friend of Prince Harry's has slammed British broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson for his "lame apology" to people he offended by writing a graphic account of his "dream" that Meghan Markle be "paraded naked" and shamed following the release of the royal couple's recent Netflix series.

Clarkson, the former host of BBC's Top Gear and Amazon's The Grand Tour, wrote in his column for British tabloid The Sun on Saturday that he hated 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," he said.

"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."

This commentary, in the context of Meghan's breaking down on camera in her Netflix series over death threats fueled by hate published in the tabloid press, earned Clarkson widespread condemnation throughout Britain.

On social media the journalist, who in the same column also referred to Harry as a "glove puppet" and "slightly dim," faced a number of high-profile figures calling him out, including his own daughter who said she stands against "everything that my dad wrote about Meghan Markle and I remain standing in support of those that are targeted with online hatred."

Hours after this, Clarkson tweeted regarding the column, stating that it was a "clumsy" reference to Game of Thrones but, importantly, offered no apology to the duchess.

"Oh dear. I've rather put my foot in it," he said. "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."

To this, former pro-rugby player and friend of Harry's, Gareth Thomas, blasted Clarkson, tweeting: "This is a lame apology to the people offended on her behalf, you could issue an apology to her publicly and directly"

In 2019, Thomas revealed that he was HIV positive and in 2022 opened up about how pal Harry had supported him through his diagnosis.

"He's been a great supporter of me publicly and privately since I spoke about my diagnosis," the sportsman told People. He added that the royal, who has continued the work with HIV and AIDS patients that his mother Princess Diana started in the 1980s, is "very caring, empathetic person," and, "whenever I do anything with Harry, it always goes well."

"We are talking about someone whose mother went, went to the HIV unit 35 years ago," he said.

"This is a man who's not, who was not infected by this virus but has understood it as being part of his life for a long, long time. So to have somebody who understands this and wants to be part of the change and wants to eradicate the negativity that people come at it with gave me a real sense that I can get through it."

Clarkson's comments in his column not only brought him social media condemnation but also saw newspaper The Sun face over 12,000 reports to the independent press standards organization (IPSO). The tabloid took down the digital version of the column at the request of Clarkson following his tweet about the reaction it provoked.

"Ipso has received more than 12,000 complaints (5pm, 19 December 2022) about an opinion piece on the Duchess and Duke of Sussex written by Jeremy Clarkson and published by The Sun on Friday, 16 December 2022," the organization said in a statement.

"The piece was removed from The Sun's website this afternoon. We will follow our usual processes to examine the complaints we have received. This will take longer than usual because of the volume of complaints."

Newsweek approached representatives of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Gareth Thomas 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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