BBC 5 Live presenter Danny Baker has issued a lengthy apology after he was fired by BBC Radio 5 Live for tweeting a joke about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's son using a picture of a monkey.
The 61-year-old broadcaster tweeted 'Royal Baby leaves hospital' showing a black and white photo of a monkey dressed in a suit.
Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, revealed on Wednesday that their new arrival was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Baker tweeted a black and white photo showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee captioned: "Royal baby leaves hospital".
He later deleted the post and apologised.
In a Twitter thread this morning, Baker said he wanted to 'formally apologise' for the 'genuine, naive and catastrophic mistake'.
He wrote: "Good morning, everyone. Following one of the worst days of my life I just want to formally apologise for the outrage I caused and explain how I got myself into this mess. I chose the wrong photo to illustrate a joke. Disastrously so.
"In attempting to lampoon privilege and the news cycle I went to a file of goofy pictures and saw the chimp dressed as a Lord and thought 'that's the one!'.
"Had I kept searching I might have chosen General Tom Thumb or even a baby in a crown. But I didn't. God knows I wish had.
"Minutes later I was alerted by followers that this Royal baby was of course mixed race and waves of panic and revulsion washed over me. 'F***, what had I done?'.
"I needed no lessons on the centuries slurs equating simians and people of colour. Racism at it's basest.
Danny Baker admits he made a 'real huge blunder' over chimpanzee tweet
Danny Baker fired by BBC over chimpanzee Royal baby tweet
"I am aware black people do not need a white man to tell them this. Deleting it immediately and apologising for the awful gaffe I even foolishly tried to make light of it. (My situation that is, not the racism involved.) Too late and here I am.
"I would like once and for all to apologise to every single person who, quite naturally, took the awful connection at face value. I understand that and all of the clamour and opprobrium I have faced since. I am not feeling sorry for myself. I f****d up. Badly.
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"But it was a genuine, naive and catastrophic mistake. There is of course little media/Twitter traction in such a straight-forward explanation. The picture in context as presented was obviously shamefully racist. It was never intended so - seriously who on earth would 'go there'?
"Anyway, I am now paying the price for this crass and regrettable blunder and rightly so. Probably even this final word from me will extend the mania. ('Dog whistle' anyone?) I would like to thank friends on here for their kinder words and once again - I am so, so sorry."
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