In a column last week, after the second installment of the Netflix documentary series devoted to the shattering departure of the British monarchy of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, accusing the press in particular of racism, Jeremy Clarkson expressed his dislike for the Duchess of Sussex .

"I hate her. (...) At night I can't sleep and I lie there, gritting my teeth and dreaming of the day when she will be paraded naked through the streets of every city in the UK, while the crowd will shout + Shame! + and throw excrement on him”, he wrote.

The article prompted a record number of complaints (more than 20,000) to the British press regulator and numerous convictions of public figures.

The Sun had removed the article Monday from its website, at the request of its author, who had invoked on Twitter "a clumsy reference to (the series) Game of Thrones".

"This was taken badly by many people. I am horrified to have caused so much pain and will be more careful in the future," he wrote.

In one of Game of Thrones' most defining sequences, a female character undergoes a "walk of shame", where she is forced to wander the streets naked while people throw trash at her.

"The columnists' opinions are their own, but as publishers we realize that with free expression comes responsibility," the newspaper wrote on its website Friday.

“We at The Sun regret the publication of this article and are sincerely sorry,” continues the tabloid, which explains that the text has been removed from its site and its archives.

This is not the first time that Jeremy Clarkson has distinguished himself with outrageous or provocative remarks.

In 2015, he was ousted from the BBC's Top Gear car show after physically and verbally attacking a producer.

Before that, he had already aroused many controversies and was accused of racist outings.

After his dismissal from the BBC, he reformed the trio that made Top Gear a hit with bandmates James May and Richard Hammond on Amazon Prime, where the 62-year-old presenter also has a show following his adventures as a farmer.

© 2022 AFP