Jeremy Clarkson suffers royal headaches amidst restaurant plans and Harry comments

It’s not been a weekend to remember for former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who found himself with not one but two spats that have gone against his favour. The presenter, 62, has had to contend not just with former royal Harry’s bombshell interview with ITV over the weekend after his comments on Meghan Markle in The Sun, but now his bid to open a restaurant has been shut down.

Having already been ordered to close his restaurant down in August 2022 on the grounds of his farm, Diddly Squat (the location of his Amazon Prime series, Clarkson’s Farm), after finding a “loophole”, the resistance towards an eatery on the ground of the Oxfordshire farm has now lead to Clarkson advising the West Oxfordshire Council that he “no longer wished” to opening a dining venue.

That admission comes even though in January 2022 Clarkson did open a dining area at the farm - quickly shut down by enforcement agencies due to a material change of use and ordered to shut the restaurant, stop selling food to be consumed on the farm, and also to remove dining tables, chairs, parasols and picnic tables.

Despite no longer looking to open a restaurant, Clarkson did appeal to the West Oxfordshire Council for planning permission to allow the development of on-site parking. "We do not wish to expand the on-site businesses any further. We are perfectly happy with what we have” he wrote in his appeal to the council, “A little shop, and the lambing barn, which can be used for lambing in the spring and as a place for people to sit in the summer while they have food and a glass of our own beer from the mobile van.”

“Contrary to some of the claims being made, I do not want to turn Diddly Squat Farm into Disneyland. It is, after all, where I live. But we really do need on-site parking. It's vital. And lavatories” he included in his letter to the council.

“Horrific and hurtful” attack by Clarkson on Meghan Markle

The planning permission dramas have taken somewhat of a backseat though after the former Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with ITV on Sunday evening, which touched upon Clarkson’s “vile” comments in his column in The Sun regarding Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle.

Prompted about how the royal family reacted after Clarkson’s admission he dreams “of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her,” Harry felt that there was no acknowledgment from the establishment about the comments written.

“The world is asking for some form of comment from the monarchy. But the silence is deafening. To put it mildly," he said. "Everything to do with my wife, after six years, they haven't said a single thing" and described the column as “horrific and hurtful and cruel towards my wife."