ITV boss Kevin Lygo has revealed whether Jeremy Clarkson will remain the host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, after his “awful” comments about Meghan Markle.
In an article for The Sun, which was published on Friday, the 62-year-old wrote that he “hates” the Duchess of Sussex “on a cellular level” and dreams of people throwing “excrement” at her in the street.
The former Top Gear star also said that he hates Meghan more than Rose West, the serial killer who collaborated with her husband Fred in the torture and murder of young women and children.
NO Jeremy Clarkson. Not on any level, in any circumstance, is it ok to write this stuff about any woman & absolutely NO to "everyone who's my age thinks the same"
No no no. We absolutely do NOT think the same.
Listen to the noise Jeremy. The crowds are chanting "shame on YOU" pic.twitter.com/OzCt9lHG16— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) December 18, 2022
He added: “Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way.”
The column, which was later deleted from The Sun’s website on Jeremy’s request, has been branded “vile” and “disgusting” by Twitter users – and it has also become the UK’s most complained about article.
Speaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild event in London on Tuesday, the managing director of ITV Studios said: “I would say what he writes in a newspaper column… We have no control over what he says.”
“We hire him as a consummate broadcaster of the most famous quiz on television, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? So it’s not quite in our wheelhouse but I don’t know what he was thinking when he wrote that. It was awful.”
When asked if ITV will keep Jeremy as host of the quiz show, Kevin said: “Yes, at the moment we are.”
When asked if Jeremy represents ITV’s values, he replied: “No, of course he doesn’t in that instance.”
Jeremy addressed the backlash over his comments in a tweet on Monday, writing: “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it.”
“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.”
The Game of Thrones scene Jeremy was supposedly referring to was Cersei Lannister’s infamous walk of shame scene, in which the character had to strip naked and walk through the streets of King’s Landing while being jeered at by the peasants.
