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09th Jun 2021

British journalist fired for racist tweet about Harry and Meghan’s newborn daughter

HerFamily

New report reveals strain between Harry and Meghan and staff on royal tour

She posted the tweet following Sunday’s announcement of the birth.

Columnist Julie Burchill says she has been fired from the Telegraph following a racist tweet about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s newborn daughter.

The broadcaster took to her Facebook page to announce the news of her firing, claiming the Telegraph folded under pressure of “cry bullies” calling for her removal from the publication.

“I’ve been sacked by the Telegraph – it’s been a lovely five years, and I’ll always be grateful to them for ending my Wilderness Years,” she wrote. “However, I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t often moaned to my husband recently about them always rejecting my *edgy* column ideas and giving me more pedestrian ones – which I’ve done splendidly anyway.”

The backlash came in response to a tweet Burchill posted after Sunday’s announcement that Harry and Meghan welcomed their second child together, a baby girl named Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.

“What a missed opportunity! They could have called it Georgina Floydina!” Burchill wrote on Twitter.

Burchill tweet

The tweet references George Floyd, the man whose death sparked worldwide protests in response to police brutality and racism after he was murdered by officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis last year.

Burchill drew criticism for racism and for calling the newborn baby girl “it.”

In response, she took to Twitter again, writing that she referred to the baby as “it” in “a nod to non-binary b****cks.”

Comments like this aren’t exactly new from the 61-year-old columnist. She has displayed xenophobia, transphobia and anti-Irish sentiment throughout her career.

Earlier this year, she was forced to apologise and pay damages to activist and journalist Ash Sarkar after accusing her of being an Islamist, a terrorist sympathiser and of “worshipping a paedophile” (in reference to the prophet Muhammad).

Burchill has since deleted her Twitter account.