BBC fires presenter following chimpanzee tweet about British royal baby

The BBC has fired a presenter who tweeted an image of a chimpanzee dressed in clothes with the caption “Royal Baby leaves hospital’’.

Meghan, wife of Prince Harry, gave birth, in the early hours of Monday, to a baby boy, Archie, the first mixed race child to be born into the top hierarchy of British royalty in recent history.  “Just got fired,” Danny Baker, the broadcaster with BBC Radio 5Live, said on Twitter. The BBC also reported the news, though a spokesman for the BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 61 year-old 5Live presenter was accused of mocking the duchess’ racial heritage.

A BBC spokesperson said: “This was a serious error of judgment.”

The corporation added that Baker’s tweet “goes against the values we as a station aim to embody. “Danny is a brilliant broadcaster, but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us.”

After an initial backlash on social media, Baker 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 its possible connotations got in touch, down it came; and that’s it.’’ Prince Harry and his wife Meghan showed their son to the public for the first time on Wednesday.

Harry and Meghan, whose mother Doria Ragland is African American, revealed on Wednesday their new son was named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. The royal couple announced the names on their official Instagram account, but did not say why they chose them or whether the infant will hold any royal titles.

Archie, who is seventh in line to the British throne, is expected to hold dual citizenship of Britain and the U.S. Congratulations have poured in from well-wishers in Britain and other countries, including many celebrities, since Meghan gave birth to the boy weighing 3.26 kilograms. Harry, 34, is the second son of the heir to the throne, Prince Charles.

Harry married former actress Meghan, 37, in a spectacular wedding at the royal Windsor Castle in May 2018. The queen and Philip now have four children, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Prince William, who has three young children with his wife Kate, the duchess of Cambridge, welcomed his younger brother to “the sleep deprivation society’’ on Tuesday.

The queen’s grandfather, King George V, changed the royal family’s name from the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor – after Windsor Castle – in 1917 during World War I.

Philip also changed his name during World War I after his grandfather, Prince Louis of Battenberg, adopted the family name Mountbatten.