James May breaks silence on 'creepy' Jeremy Clarkson column on Meghan Markle
Jeremy Clarkson’s co-star James May has said that his colleague's controversial column attacking Meghan Markle was 'creepy' and has refused to defend his pal.
But he said he is in favour of free speech and “allowing the haters to hate”.
James has broken his silence on the article which provoked fierce backlash and a torrent of outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.
The former Top Gear presenter wrote in his newspaper column that he wanted the Duchess of Sussex to be "paraded naked through the streets" where he "dreams of people throwing lumps of excrement at her".
He added: "Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way".
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James May, right, has refused to defend pal Jeremy Clarkson (Getty Images)Both he and The Sun have apologised - but it led to question marks over the future of Prime show Clarkson’s Farm.
The TV star says he emailed the Duke and Duchess on Christmas Day to apologise and say his language in the column had been “disgraceful” and that he was “profoundly sorry”.
Anger against Jeremy went across the globe and James clearly also felt he went too far.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the 60-year-old admits that he hadn’t read the full column because he had been ‘away.’
But he told host Martha Kearney: "Well I think he did say something like: 'All people my age think the same way'.
His grim newspaper column sparked anger across the world (PA)"Well I’d like to go on record and say I don’t, and I’m only a few years younger than him."
"‘I wouldn’t have written that.
"I think it sounds a little bit too creepy but I’m also very much in favour of free speech and allowing the 'haters to hate' so we can see what they have to say."
Jeremy stated that he "hated" the Duchess of Sussex on a "cellular level" and told how he disliked her more than murderer Rose West.
The Duke of Sussex previously branded the article about his wife “horrific, hurtful and cruel” during an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby to discuss his autobiography Spare, adding that what Clarkson had written would encourage people around the world to believe it is an acceptable way to treat women.
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He wrote to the royals to say sorry but that hasn't halted the outrage (Getty Images)He claimed he reached out to the couple on Christmas Day, just days after his now-deleted column was published in print and online.
Harry and Meghan have responded with a statement of their own and denied he reached out to Meghan – claiming he contacted Harry alone.
It reads: "On December 25, 2022, Mr. Clarkson wrote solely to Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex.
"The contents of his correspondence were marked Private and Confidential.
Jeremy eventually said sorry for his now-deleted column (Getty Images)"While a new public apology has been issued today by Mr. Clarkson, what remained to be addressed is his long standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories, and misogyny."
It adds: "Unless each of his other pieces were also written "in a hurry", as he states, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident shared in haste, but rather a series of articles shared in hate."
Clarkson presented Top Gear between 1988 and 1998, then more prominently between 2002 and 2015, but was dropped by the BBC after an altercation with a member of production staff.
He, May and Hammond then moved to Amazon Prime Video to make The Grand Tour, which first aired in 2016.
The second series of the broadcaster’s popular programme Clarkson’s Farm, which documents the highs and lows of running his farm in Oxfordshire, is set to launch on February 10 on Amazon Prime Video.
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