British presenter fired after posting chimp picture with royal baby tweet

Updated

British broadcaster Danny Baker has been sacked by the BBC after posting a picture of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee and the words “Royal Baby leaves hospital.”

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry – the duke and duchess of Sussex – publicly showed off their newborn son for the first time Wednesday. The baby, whom they have named Archie Harrison Windsor-Mountbatten, is seventh in line to the throne.

Baker denied that the tweet, which he deleted, was racist, and said it was a misinterpreted joke about “Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes.”

He was promptly fired by the BBC on Thursday. Baker has a show on BBC radio and has made numerous TV appearance over the years on TV in Britain, where he is a household name. A Jeff Pope sitcom for ITV, “Cradle to the Grave,” was based upon Baker’s life.

A BBC spokesman confirmed he was leaving the pubcaster. “This was a serious error of judgment and goes against the values we as a station aim to embody,” the spokesman said. “Danny’s a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”

The broadcaster continued to defend himself on Twitter, Thursday, before being fired. “Would have used same stupid pic for any other Royal birth or Boris Johnson kid or even one of my own,” he tweeted. “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.”

Baker himself took the news of losing his job badly. First he announced he had been fired on Twitter, then added the sacking was “a masterclass of pompous faux-gravity.” He added: “[It] 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.”

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