Jeremy Clarkson and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire 'not cancelled' after comments about Meghan Markle

Jeremy Clarkson’s hosting duties on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? have not been cancelled, ITV has confirmed.

It comes after reports of his exit from the show hit the headlines on Wednesday.

Clarkson’s position as host of the quiz show came into question late last year, after comments he made about the Duchess of Sussex in a column for The Sun newspaper.

The column, which became Ipso’s most complained-about article after its publication and received more than 25,100 complaints, was also published online on The Sun’s website and later removed.

In the piece, he said he was “dreaming of the day when [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.

Clarkson’s comments were widely criticised and his daughter, Emily, said: “I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.”

He later apologised, and said he had “completely messed up” and that he had emailed the couple on Christmas Day to apologise.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for ITV said: “As we have said for several weeks, ITV is contractually committed to a further series of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (which has now been recorded.)

“There are no further commissioning commitments beyond that currently as is typical with such shows where we make commissioning decisions on a series by series basis.“

“Therefore for the avoidance of doubt neither Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? nor Jeremy Clarkson have been cancelled.”

Clarkson later tweeted: “So many kind messages about today’s reports. But relax.

“Lisa and I have not split up and I have not been sacked as host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.”

The former Top Gear presenter co-hosts the Amazon Prime series The Grand Tour and a documentary series Clarkson’s Farm.

He took over hosting Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2018 from Chris Tarrant.