The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have responded to Jeremy Clarkson's recent apology with a statement.
The 62-year-old stated that he had directly emailed Harry and Meghan to apologise for the controversial column published in The Sun. In it, he said he "hated" the former Suits actress "on a cellular level" and wanted to see her "paraded naked through the streets".
The Grand Tour presenter shared a statement on his Instagram page in which he said he "really is sorry" for the comments he made in the article. He stressed he felt sorrowful "from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head", the Mirror reports.
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He also claimed that he reached out to the couple on Christmas Day shortly after the column was published. However, Harry and Meghan have now responded to Clarkson's latest post with a statement of their own, arguing that he never reached out to Meghan, instead only contacting Harry.
Their statement reads: "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 remained to be addressed is his long standing pattern of writing articles that spread ate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny."
It adds: "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."
An ITV boss slammed the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presenter but said they wouldn't sack him over the comments. Kevin Lygo said at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch: "It was awful what he said and I think even he has now acknowledged that.
"He should apologise. I don’t know what he was thinking when he wrote that."
The Independent Press Standards Organisation received more than 20,000 complaints about the column, making it the most complained about article ever.
In response, IPSO shared a statement which read: "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."
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