Danny Baker fired from BBC 5 Live for Royal Baby monkey picture 'joke'

Broadcaster Danny Baker has been sacked from BBC Radio 5Live after tweeting a joke about the Duke and Duchess Of Sussex's son using a picture of a monkey.

Harry and Meghan, whose mother is African American, revealed on Wednesday that their new arrival was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Radio DJ Baker made a joke about the birth, tweeting a black and white photo showing a well-dressed man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Baker captioned it: " Royal baby leaves hospital". Following a backlash and allegations of racism, he deleted the post and apologised.

He 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 it's possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that's it."

Mr Baker has since revealed he has been fired by the national broadcaster.

The 61-year-old, who presents a weekly show on BBC Radio 5 Live, apologised again on Wednesday evening, saying the joke was intended to poke fun at the Royal family.

Danny Baker has been sacked from his job with the BBC. Picture: Paul Hudson/Flickr/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/Danny Baker has been sacked from his job with the BBC. Picture: Paul Hudson/Flickr/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Danny Baker has been sacked from his job with the BBC. Picture: Paul Hudson/Flickr/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

He said: "Once again. Sincere apologies for the stupid unthinking gag pic earlier. Was supposed to be joke about Royals vs circus animals in posh clothes but interpreted as about monkeys & race, so rightly deleted.

"Royal watching not my forte. Also, guessing it was my turn in the barrel."

Baker appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in 2016.

Related topics: