Jeremy Clarkson has addressed the widespread backlash over his latest newspaper column about Meghan Markle.
The former Top Gear presenter was met with a wave of criticism over the weekend, when he penned a column in The Sun describing how much he “hates” the Duchess of Sussex “on a cellular level”.
In the opinion piece, he added that he dreams of the day “when she is made to parade naked through the streets” while crowds “throw lumps of excrement at her”.
Clarkson’s piece has been heavily criticised by a number of public figures, including his own daughter, with thousands of complaints having now been made to the press regulator Ipso.
In response to this criticism, Clarkson tweeted on Monday afternoon: “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it.”
Pointing out part of his column was intended as a reference to one memorable scene from Game Of Thrones, the Clarkson’s Farm host continued: “I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game Of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people.”
Stopping short of an actual apology, he added: “I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.”
Clarkson’s column came in the wake of the second and final batch of episodes of the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, which debuted on the platform last week.
In these episodes, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex claim that Prince Harry was “blocked” from seeing his grandmother, the Queen, and that Prince William “screamed and shouted” at his brother after he announced his intention to move abroad with his wife.
Meghan also spoke at length about feeling targeted by the British media, which led to her experiencing suicidal feelings.
Both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have so far remained silent over the claims made by the pair in the six-part series.