Britain’s Duke of Sussex says an allegedly racist tweet posted by a veteran British broadcaster was one of the first things he saw after the birth of his son Archie.
In the fourth episode of Netflix’s Harry and Meghan, Prince Harry, 38, recalls how a “photograph of a couple with a chimp” was posted by a member of the media, adding: “and at the top it said ‘Royal baby leaves hospital’.”
Harry also said about the aftermath of his son’s birth: “So that was one of the first things that I saw.”
The tweet was posted by long-term former BBC broadcaster Danny Baker, 65, who later apologized and said it was meant as a joke “about royals versus circus animals in posh clothes.”
He was fired by the BBC over the fallout from his tweet, which he said was a “stupid unthinking gag” that he insisted had no racist undertones.
“This was a serious error of judgment and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody,” a BBC spokesman said at the time of the 2019 uproar. “Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”
Baker’s tweet showed a black-and-white photograph of a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a chimpanzee wearing a bowler hat and jacket alongside the caption: “Royal baby leaves hospital.”
It prompted a furious backlash online after the arrival of Britain’s first royal mixed-race baby, with Baker trying to excuse it by saying: “Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up. Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased. Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that’s it. Now stand by for sweary football tweets.”
After posting a series of tweets about a Tottenham Hotspur vs Ajax football match in the Champions League semifinal, Baker, who presented a weekly show on BBC Radio 5 Live, posted another apology as outrage continued to build over his tweet.
“Once again. Sincere apologies for the stupid unthinking gag pic earlier,” he added. “Was supposed to be joke about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys and race, so rightly deleted. Royal watching not my forte.”
The following day, Baker said online about how reporters from The Daily Mail and Sky had tried to speak to him about the controversy: “Here we go. Opened door, grinning Mail hack. ‘Do you think black people look like monkeys?’
“Any other time you’d knock someone right on their arse for saying that. No mate. Gag pic. Posh baby chimp. Alerted to circs. Appalled. Deleted. Apologized. He asks again! #MailonRacism.”
Baker added: “Now Sky at the door. Would have used same stupid pic for any other Royal birth or (British politician Boris Johnson) kid or even one of my own. It’s a funny image. (Though not of course in that context.) Enormous mistake, for sure. Grotesque. Anyway, here’s to ya Archie, Sorry mate.”
Shortly after he announced: “Just got fired from @bbc5live.”
The Sussexes, who also share 18-month-old daughter Lilibet, made their first public appearance with their baby at St George’s Hall, Windsor Castle, on May 8 before confirming they had named their son, now three, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
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