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Nicola Sturgeon has said she feels “pity” for men like Jeremy Clarkson and warned that “words have consequences”.
The first minister was speaking after the TV presenter wrote a column for The Sun in which he compared his hatred of the Duchess of Sussex with his feelings for Ms Sturgeon and Rose West.
Ms Sturgeon said Clarkson’s words about Meghan were “deeply misogynist and just downright awful”.
Mr Clarkson has since said he is “horrified” about causing so much hurt.
The column has attracted more than 6,000 complaints to Ipso, the independent press standards organisation.
In it, Clarkson said he felt sorry for Prince Harry, following the broadcast of Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
He added: “Meghan, though, is a different story. I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.”
West is a serial killer who, along with her husband Fred, murdered at least 12 young girls over 20 years.
Ms Sturgeon said: “I think what he said about Meghan Markle was deeply misogynist and just downright awful and horrible.
“The overwhelming emotion I have for men like Jeremy Clarkson is pity.
“I can’t imagine what it must be like to be so consumed and distorted by hate of other people, and in his case it appears women in particular, that you end up writing that toxic, vile abuse.”
She added: “The kind of abuse he was hurling at Meghan Markle, that has consequences. Words have consequences in that if they stir up hate against an individual then there are some people out there who would try to act on that.”
In a tweet on Monday, Clarkson acknowledged the backlash against his newspaper column.
He said: “Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it.”
He described a reference he made to a scene in TV show Game of Thrones as “clumsy”.
“I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future,” he said.
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.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) December 19, 2022
Jeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime Video series The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm and also hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV.
The Sun told BBC News it doesn’t have anything further to add.
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