Jeremy Clarkson #

Introduction #

Jeremy Clarkson, the English television presenter best known for hosting the motoring shows Top Gear and The Grand Tour, faced a wave of calls for him to be dropped by Amazon and ITV after publishing a column about Meghan Markle in The Sun on December 16, 2022. In the piece, he wrote that he despised the Duchess of Sussex on “a cellular level” and dreamed of her being paraded naked through British towns while crowds threw excrement at her. More than 60 MPs demanded action, Amazon was reported to be ending its relationship with him, and ITV made no further commitments beyond the upcoming series of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Background Information #

Clarkson was born on April 11, 1960, in Sprotbrough, then part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He became a journalist, and from 2002 to 2015 hosted Top Gear on the BBC alongside Richard Hammond and James May, making the show one of the most watched factual programmes worldwide before he was dropped in 2015 after an altercation with a producer. He then moved to Amazon Prime Video with The Grand Tour (2016–2024) and Clarkson’s Farm (2021–present), a farming documentary set at his Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire, and presented a revived Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on ITV from 2018. He also wrote columns for The Sun, the tabloid at the centre of the 2022 controversy.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

On December 16, 2022, The Sun published a column by Clarkson about Meghan Markle, written after the release of the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, in which he said he despised her on “a cellular level” and dreamed of her being “made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her” — a reference to a walk-of-atonement scene from Game of Thrones.

The backlash was immediate. Prince Harry branded the comments “horrific” and “hurtful,” and on December 20, 2022, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes wrote to The Sun’s editor calling for “action to be taken” against Clarkson and an “unreserved apology,” a letter signed by more than 60 cross-party MPs. ITV Studios managing director Kevin Lygo said the comments were “awful” and that Clarkson “should apologise,” while saying ITV would keep him as host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? “at the moment.” The Metropolitan Police said he would not face criminal proceedings, as it was not police work to “police people’s ethics.”

Public Reaction and Consequences #

In mid-January 2023, Variety reported that Amazon Prime Video would no longer work with Clarkson beyond seasons of The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm that had already been commissioned, and The Independent reported that ITV had not made any further commitments to him beyond the upcoming series of the quiz show. Clarkson responded with a lengthy public apology on Instagram in which he said he “felt sick” when he realised he had “completely messed up” — the column had become the UK press watchdog IPSO’s most-complained-about article ever — and revealed that he had emailed Harry and Meghan on Christmas Day to apologise, calling his language “disgraceful.” He said his employers at ITV and Amazon were “incandescent,” that “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.” His daughter Emily publicly reprimanded him, saying she stood against “misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by the media,” while Clarkson insisted: “I’m just not sexist and I abhor violence against women.”

In June 2023, IPSO censured the column, ruling that it contained “a pejorative and prejudicial reference to the Duchess of Sussex’s sex” and ordering The Sun to publish a summary of the findings, while rejecting complaints that it was inaccurate, harassed Markle, or discriminated on grounds of race.

Current Status #

The reported break with Amazon proved temporary: Clarkson’s Farm was renewed for a fourth season broadcast in 2025 and a fifth in 2026, and Clarkson continued to host Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and its 2026 spin-off Millionaire Hot Seat. In August 2024 he opened the Farmer’s Dog pub near Burford, Oxfordshire, in connection with his farm. In June 2026 he disclosed on Clarkson’s Farm that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May 2025, detected early, and announced days later on Instagram that he was in remission.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The episode delivered a genuine shock to Clarkson’s career at the time: his presenting future at both Amazon and ITV was publicly in question, his apology press conference was cancelled, and a press regulator formally censured him — but the commercial fallout did not stick. Within months Amazon was back commissioning Clarkson’s Farm, and ITV kept the quiz show with him at the helm.

The column nonetheless remains a defining chapter in his public life: a case of a high-profile presenter being publicly “cancelled” in real time — with MPs and press critics lining up against him, his own daughter publicly reprimanding him — before broadly recovering. His reputation continued to be shaped as much by his farming show and outspoken political views, including banning Prime Minister Keir Starmer from his pub, as by the 2022 controversy.