Jeremy Clarkson’s “vile” column about Meghan Markle has become the UK’s most complained about article.
Media regulator the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) said the piece, which was written for The Sun, had received more than 17,500 complaints as of 9am on Tuesday.
The number surpassed the total number of complaints Ipso received in 2021 – which was 14,355.
The previous most complained-about article was published in the Scottish Sun in August 2020, about the Stonehaven train derailment, which received more than 16,860 complaints.
In Jeremy’s piece, which was published on Friday, he 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.
The 62-year-old added: “Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way.”
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
The article was deleted from The Sun’s website on Monday afternoon, with the publication explaining that Jeremy had “asked us to take last week’s column down”.
An Ipso spokesperson said in a statement: “Ipso has now received more than 17,500 complaints about Jeremy Clarkson’s column on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, published by The Sun on Friday December 16 2022.”
“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.”
The spokesman added that the number of complaints would be subject to change.
Jeremy’s column has been branded “vile” and “disgusting” by Twitter users.
Taking to Twitter on Monday afternoon amid the backlash, the former Top Gear star wrote: “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.
