The Sun apologises over Jeremy Clarkson's Meghan column

The Sun newspaper says it regrets publishing a Jeremy Clarkson column about the Duchess of Sussex and is "sincerely sorry".

More than 20,000 complaints were made to the press regulator after the broadcaster wrote last week that he hated Meghan "on a cellular level".

He later asked for the column to be removed from the Sun's website.

The newspaper said: "As a publisher, we realise that with free expression comes responsibility."

The piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's (Ipso) most complained-about article.

Ipso said it had received more than 17,500 complaints by 0900 GMT on Tuesday - which rose to 20,8000 by 17:00.

In place of the article, the Sun's website now has a copy of a tweet from Clarkson in which he said he was "horrified to have caused so much hurt" and "would be more careful in future".

Clarkson's column, published on 16 December, was widely criticised on social media.

Clarkson's own daughter Emily also distanced herself from her fathers words.

She said last week: "I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle."

This follows the release of Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix six-part series, in which the couple made allegations against the Royal Family.