The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have rejected Jeremy Clarkson’s apology over his column in The Sun newspaper in which he said he “hated” Meghan, and disputed that he wrote to both of them.
On Monday, the former Top Gear presenter shared a lengthy statement on Instagram claiming he had sent an email to both Meghan and Prince Harry on Christmas Day to say his language in the column had been “disgraceful” and he was “profoundly sorry”.
However, a statement issued by the couple’s spokesperson on Monday in response to Clarkson’s Instagram post, states that he only wrote to Prince Harry, not his wife.
It goes on to question Clarkson’s excuse that he wrote the offending column in a “hurry” and addressed his “long standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny”.
Harry and Meghan’s spokesman said: “On December 25, 2022, Mr Clarkson wrote solely to Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex. The contents of his correspondence were marked Private and Confidential.
“While a new public apology has been issued today by Mr Clarkson, what remains to be addressed is his long standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny.
“Unless each of his other pieces were also written “in a hurry”, as he states, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident shared in haste, but rather a series of articles shared in hate.”
In December, the presenter faced widespread backlash after the publication of the opinion piece in which he described how much he “hates” the Duchess of Sussex on a “cellular level”.
The TV star 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.
In his Instagram apology, Jeremy said: “Usually, I read what I’ve written to someone else before filing, but I was home alone on that fateful day, and in a hurry. So when I’d finished, I just pressed send. And then, when the column appeared the next day, the land mine exploded.”
He concluded: “I emailed Harry and Meghan in California to apologise to them too.
“I said I was baffled by what they had been saying on TV but that the language I’d used in my column was disgraceful and that I was profoundly sorry.
“Over the last thirty years, I have written very nearly five thousand newspaper and magazine columns, so it was inevitable that one day, I’d do a Harry Kane and sky one of the damn things. Which is what happened with the piece about Meghan.”
The Duke of Sussex brought up the column while discussing “accountability” during Prince Harry: The Interview, which aired earlier this month.
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 at the time.