BBC host fired after royal baby tweet with chimpanzee picture
Veteran British broadcaster Danny Baker was on Thursday fired by the BBC after tweeting a picture of well-dressed couple holding hands with a chimpanzee in a suit, tagged with the caption "royal baby leaves hospital". Accusations of racism immediately flooded his timeline, as new royal baby Archie has mixed-race heritage through mother Meghan, and he later took down the picture, apologising for the "possible connotations".
- Magazine
- AP
- Published Date: 03:09 | 09 May 2019
- Modified Date: 03:09 | 09 May 2019
A BBC disc jockey has been fired after using a picture of a chimpanzee in a tweet about the royal baby born to Meghan the Duchess of Sussex and her husband Prince Harry.
Danny Baker tweeted Thursday that he has been fired after posting an image of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee dressed in clothes and the caption: "Royal baby leaves hospital."
The tweet was seen as a racist reference to baby Archie's heritage. His grandmother Doria Ragland is African American.
Baker says the posting was an "enormous mistake." It has since been deleted.
BBC Radio 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall said Baker "will no longer be presenting his weekly show for us."
Wall says Baker "made a serious error of judgment on social media."