A petition urging ITV bosses not to axe star Jeremy Clarkson over his controversial comments about the Duchess of Sussex has reached over 30,000 signatures. The 62-year-old former Top Gear host landed himself in hot water after writing a column saying he hated Meghan.
Although he has since apologised for his comments, Clarkson said he wanted the Royal paraded through the streets naked. The presenter has since called his words "disgraceful", reports the Daily Star.
He says bosses at ITV and Amazon Prime, who are behind his current catalogue of programmes, were "incandescent" about the entire thing. A petition calling on the networks to keep the presenter has now reached 30,000 signatures on Change.org.
Entitled "To the CEO of ITV: Don’t Cancel Jeremy Clarkson", the petition is addressed to ITV boss Carolyn McCall and says: "Please don’t fire Jeremy Clarkson as host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? as a result of what he wrote about the Duchess of Sussex in the Sun newspaper in December." It says that the negative reaction to the star's column has been “completely disproportionate”.
The petition also pointed out also noted that the Grand Tour presenter had asked bosses to pull the column - which it has been - and that he had said sorry to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. “If people make mistakes and then apologise for them, we should give them the benefit of the doubt, not seek to destroy their livelihoods and turn them into social pariahs,” the petition said.
“After all, we believe in the possibility of redemption for even the most hardened criminals; why can’t we extend the same charity to people whose only crime is to have said something offensive?”
