By Ben Kerrigan
Caroline Flack’s mother has slammed Jeremy Clarkson’s comments about Meghan Markle in a call to LBC.
Christina Flack was referring to a column for The Sun last week, the former Top Gear host wrote that he despises the Duchess of Sussex “on a cellular level” and dreams of people throwing “excrement” at her naked in the street.
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The former Top Gear presenter, 62, said he would “be more careful in future” after the piece, written in The Sun, attracted criticism from high-profile figures and his own daughter.
In it, Clarkson wrote he had dreamed of Meghan being paraded through British towns and publicly shamed, adding that “everyone who’s my age thinks the same way”.
Caroline Flack’s mother, Christine, called into Shelagh Fogarty’s LBC show to give her thoughts.
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She said: “They don’t learn, do they Shelagh?
“All the terrible things that are happening in the world and people are going to be so hard up this Christmas and they’re still worrying about writing something awful about Meghan. I don’t get it.”
Fogarty replied: “To take time out of your day to write what Clarkson wrote within days of her telling the world how appalling the impact is so many shades of cruel.
“It’s brutal. It reveals him to be either a brutal man or a brutalised man, who doesn’t know what to do with how he feels about her. To be that full of rage about someone you don’t even know is plain odd.”
Christine added: “Why write something so bad? We thought when Carry died this thing about being kind, it isn’t a joke, it is a real thing.
“If you’re going to write something about someone, let it be nice, otherwise, just leave it alone and have your own opinions in private.”
The conversation sparked an emotional response from listeners.
“That brought tears to my eyes! How awful that this hateful spouting of venom from Clarkson should upset this lady whose own world was destroyed by more casually nasty journalism! Words do hurt & remain there forever once used,” said one listener.
Another added: “Thank-you Christine. It was very brave of you to phone Sheila.”
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) said it had received more than 6,000 complaints over the article – almost half the total number of complaints the media regulator received in 2021.
Writing on Twitter on Monday, Clarkson 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.”
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