The Sun apologises over Jeremy Clarkson's Meghan column

The Sun newspaper says it regrets publishing a Jeremy Clarkson column about the Duchess of Sussex and is “sincerely sorry”.

More than 20,000 complaints were made to the press regulator after the broadcaster wrote last week that he hated Meghan “on a cellular level”.

He later asked for the column to be removed from the Sun’s website.

The newspaper said: “As a publisher, we realise that with free expression comes responsibility.”

The piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s (Ipso) most complained-about article.

Ipso said it had received more than 17,500 complaints by 0900 GMT on Tuesday – which rose to 20,8000 by 17:00.

In place of the article, the Sun’s website now has a copy of a tweet from Clarkson in which he said he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt” and “would be more careful in future”.

Clarkson’s column, published on 16 December, was widely criticised on social media.

Clarkson’s own daughter Emily also distanced herself from her fathers words.

She said last week: “I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.”

Kevin Lygo, ITV’s media and entertainment boss, described the comments made by Clarkson as “awful” but said there were no plans to replace him as a host of the gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.

The column came after the release of Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix six-part series, in which the couple made allegations against the Royal Family.

In its apology, which has been published on its website, the Sun said: “We will continue to campaign for good causes on behalf of our readers in 2023.”

The Sun said it had a “proud history of campaigning”, including work on bringing about legislation on domestic abuse, providing beds in refuges and closing harmful loopholes in the law.

The newspaper said the article had been removed from the website and the archives.

In the original column, Clarkson said: “At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] 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.

“Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way,” he added. “But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she’s pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.”