Jeremy Clarkson Dropped By Prime Video After Meghan Markle Column (Reportedly)
It has been reported that Prime Video are likely to be dropping Grand Tour host Jeremy Clarkson after his controversial Meghan Markle column in The Sun.
Questions were immediately raised over the former Top Gear presenters future with Prime Video when fans were calling for Clarkson to be fired from his jobs with The Sun, The Times, Prime Video, and ITV.
Clarkson wrote in his column for The Sun that he “hated Meghan Markle on a cellular level” and that “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.”
The Clarkson’s Farm star wrote to his social media to say he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.” The column has now been removed from The Sun.
Sources close to Prime Video have told Variety that the company will sever ties with the presenter after 2024 but they will carry on with the shows that have already been commissioned including The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm. This means that his hit farming show will likely not go beyond season 3 and the report from Variety states The Grand Tour will have four more specials.
Clarkson has now posted a statement to his Instagram account. He wrote:
“One of the strange things I’ve noticed in recent times is that whenever an MP or a well-known person is asked to apologise for something, no matter how heartfelt or profound that apology may be, it’s never enough for the people who called for it in the first place.
“So I’m going to try and buck the trend this morning with an apology for the things I said in a Sun column recently about Meghan Markle. I really am sorry. All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.”
The journalist continued on the next slide:
“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.
“It was a slow rumble to start with and I ignored it. But then the rumble got louder. So I picked up a copy of The Sun to see what all the fuss was about. We’ve all been there, I guess. In that precise moment when we suddenly realise we’ve completely messed up. You are sweaty and cold at the same time. And your head pounds. And you feel sick. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Had I really said that? It was horrible.”
Clarkson continued confirming that Prime Video and ITV were furious with him for the column.
“I knew what had happened straight away. I’d been thinking of a scene in Game of Thrones, but I’d forgotten to mention this. So it looked like I was actually calling for revolting violence to rain down on Meghan’s head.
“I was very angry with myself because in all those controversial days on Top Gear, when I was accused of all sorts of things, it was very rarely sexism. We never did “women can’t park” gags for instance. Or suggested that powerful cars were only for men. And I was thrilled when Jodie Kidd and Ellen MacArthur set fastest ever laps in our reasonably priced car. I’m just not sexist and I abhor violence against women. And yet I seemed to be advocating just that.
“I was mortified and so was everyone else. My phone went mad. Very close friends were furious. Even my own daughter took to Instagram to denounce me. The Sun quickly apologised, and I tried to explain myself.
“But still, there were calls for me to be sacked and charged with a hate crime. More than 60 MPs demanded action to be taken. ITV, who make Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and Amazon, who make the Farm Show and the Grand Tour, were incandescent.
Revealing that he contacted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Christmas morning to apologise directly. He explained:
“I therefore wrote to everyone who works with me saying how sorry I was and then on Christmas morning, i e-mailed 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.
Jeremy has a history of severing ties with the companies behind his popular shows, just see Top Gear for example, but for Richard Hammond and James May’s sake, I hope this doesn’t end in yet another dramatic way.
We’ll wait for more news and update you as it comes.