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The British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) on Thursday fired a presenter who tweeted an image of a chimpanzee dressed in clothes with the caption “Royal Baby leaves hospital,” Reuters reports.
Meghan, wife of Prince Harry, gave birth, in the early hours of Monday, to a baby boy, Archie, the first mixed-race child to be born into the top hierarchy of British royalty in recent history.
“Just got fired,” Danny Baker, the broadcaster with BBC Radio 5Live, said on Twitter.
The BBC also reported the news, though a spokesman for the BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 61-year-old 5Live presenter was accused of mocking the duchess’ racial heritage.
A BBC spokesperson said, “This was a serious error of judgment.”
The corporation added that Baker’s tweet “goes against the values we as a station aim to embody.
“Danny is a brilliant broadcaster, but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”
After tweeting an apology, calling his tweet a “stupid unthinking gag pic,” Baker tweeted about the BBC’s decision, saying, “The call to fire me… was a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity.
“Took a tone that said I actually meant that ridiculous tweet and the BBC must uphold blah blah blah.
“Literally threw me under the bus. Could hear the suits’ knees knocking,” he stated
Speaking to the media outside his house, he told reporters, “I do not, not understand all of this, I get it. But for 5 Live to chuck us under the bus like this, dear lord.”
When quizzed on what he would do next, he added, “I’m annoyingly ebullient and if you’re accused of the kind of grotesque racism but you’re not, you don’t wring your hands. Ill advised, ill thought out and stupid but racist? No, I’m aware how delicate that imagery is.”
After an initial backlash on social media, Baker said, “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.’’
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan showed their son to the public for the first time on Wednesday.
Harry and Meghan, whose mother Doria Ragland is African American, revealed on Wednesday their new son was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
The royal couple announced the names on their official Instagram account, but did not say why they chose them. They also said the infant will not hold any royal title for now.
Archie, who is seventh in line to the British throne, is expected to hold dual citizenship of Britain and the U.S.