Prince Harry has spoken for the first time about Jeremy Clarkson’s infamous column about Meghan Markle, which was published in The Sun last month.
Clarkson faced a widespread backlash in December when he penned an opinion piece describing how much he “hates” the Duchess of Sussex on a “cellular level”.
The former Top Gear host added that he dreams of the day “when [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets” while crowds “throw lumps of excrement at her”.
In the days that followed, the column incited a record-breaking number of complaints to the press regulator Ipso, with The Sun eventually issuing an apology after removing the article from their website, at its author’s request.
Speaking during Prince Harry: The Interview, which aired on Sunday night, the Duke of Sussex brought up the piece of his own accord while discussing “accountability”.
Harry said: “Not only was what he said horrific, and is hurtful and cruel towards my wife, but it also encourages other people around the UK, and around the world – men particularly – to think that it’s acceptable to treat women that way.
“To use my stepmother’s words recently as well, there is a global pandemic of violence against women.”
He added: “It’s no longer a case of me asking for accountability, but at this point the world is asking for accountability, and the world is asking for some form of comment from the monarchy but the silence is deafening. To put it mildly.
“Everything to do with my wife, after six years, they haven’t said a single thing.”
Amid the controversy last month, Clarkson said he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt”, but stopped short of an actual apology.
“Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it,” he tweeted. “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.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for The Sun said: “Columnists’ opinions are their own, but as a publisher we realise that with free expression comes responsibility. We at The Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry.
“The Sun has a proud history of campaigning, from Help for Heroes to Jabs Army, Who Cares Wins and over 50 years of working in partnership with charities, our campaigns have helped change Britain for the better.
“Working with our readers, The Sun has helped to bring about new legislation on domestic abuse, provided beds in refuges, closed harmful loopholes in the law and empowered survivors of abuse to come forward and seek help. We will continue to campaign for good causes on behalf of our readers in 2023.”