Meghan set to celebrate after Jeremy Clarkson’s major legal setback
Meghan Markle looks set to celebrate after Jeremy Clarkson’s major legal setback.
Agreeing with Clarkson’s controversial column about Meghan has been ruled as sexual harassment by an employment tribunal.
The landmark ruling came just hours ago in a case involving a female marketing manager who successfully sued her former employer.
The tribunal found that endorsing Clarkson’s comments, which suggested the Duchess of Sussex should be paraded naked through the streets, constituted harassment in the workplace.
Helen Selkin, a marketing manager, brought the case against Opico, an agricultural machinery company where she had worked since April 2017.
The tribunal in Nottingham heard that Selkin worked in what was described as a “male-dominated industry”.
In January 2023, sales director Charles Bedforth made a “crass” comment to Selkin, stating he did not think Clarkson’s comments about Meghan were offensive.
This comment later formed part of her successful harassment claim.
Clarkson wrote in the Sun and on X in 2022 that the Duchess “ought to be paraded through the streets naked”.
The former Top Gear presenter said he loathed Meghan “on a cellular level” and dreamt of crowds hurling excrement at her while chanting “shame”.
He later apologised to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying he was sorry “from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head”.
Employment Judge Elizabeth Heap ruled that Bedforth’s statement was “endorsing that there was nothing wrong” with the offensive comments about the Duchess.
LATEST ROYAL NEWS:
Meghan suffers blow as critics slam Duchess’s ‘unhygienic’ chickenPrince Harry saved by Meghan’s surprise move amid Netflix uncertaintyMeghan releases first statement since Netflix’s surprise announcement
The judge found Bedforth did not intend to cause offence but said his statement resulted from “a lack of understanding and being of a clumsy and ‘old school’ mindset”.
The tribunal determined that despite the lack of intent, the comments still constituted sexual harassment.
GB News has contacted the Duchess of Sussex’s representatives for a statement on the ruling.