Columnist sacked over racist tweet about Sussex baby

• Pooja Shrivastava
• 09 June, 2021

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By: Pooja Shrivastava

A COLUMNIST has been fired over a racist tweet she wrote about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s baby girl.

Julie Burchill, a columnist for The Sunday Telegraph, claimed she was “sacked” a day after tweeting about the name of the baby, Lilibet.

“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,” the Brighton-based writer wrote on Facebook on Tuesday (8).

After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the arrival of their second child on Sunday (6), Burchil tweeted, “What a missed opportunity! They could have called it Georgina Floydina!”

London-based barrister Joanna Toch, 59, who responded to her now-deleted tweet with racist comments, is also reported to have been suspended from her legal practice firm.

Toch tweeted “No Doria? Don’t black names matter?” to which Burchill tweeted back, “I was hoping for Doria Oprah, the racist rotters”.

The tweets prompted a backlash on social media, where their views were described as “disgusting racism” and “despicable”.

Last year, Markle spoke about George Floyd, a black man who was killed in US police custody and other victims of police brutality in a graduation address shortly after the 46-year-old’s death sparked the Black Lives Matter protests worldwide.