BBC sacks presenter after making chimp royal baby 'joke'

Radio 5 Live host Danny Baker later apologised and deleted the tweet

Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pose for a photo with their newborn baby son Archie. AFP

The BBC sacked one of its radio show hosts for a tweet about the new British royal baby featuring a picture of a chimpanzee.

The photo, which was later deleted, was a black and white image showing a man and woman holding hands with a suited chimpanzee.

Danny Baker, a Radio 5 Live presenter, captioned it: “Royal baby leaves hospital.”

He later apologised, writing: "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."

Mr Baker confirmed on Twitter that he had been fired by the British broadcaster.

Minutes later, he tweeted that he was “thrown under the bus” and that the BBC insinuated that there was racist intentions behind the tweet.

On Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed the name of their new-born baby – Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.