The Sun was lambasted from all sides yesterday as it laid into the former heavyweight boxer in its first editions, but as complaints rolled in and the paper realised its blunder, it scrapped its "Bonkers Bruno locked up" headline in favour of "Sad Bruno in mental home".
The mad, grinning picture it had used was also gone, replaced by a new picture of Bruno looking sad, with a picture caption calling him a "hero".
Bruno had been taken away in the night by friends and the police to a hospital to help him deal with his spiralling mental illness.
The paper was yesterday slammed by mental health charity Sane. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the charity, said: "It is both an insult to Mr Bruno and damaging to the many thousands of people who endure mental illness to label him as 'bonkers' or 'a nutter' and having to be 'put in a mental home'."
This morning, the paper said it was donating £10,000 for a Sun fund to help those suffering from mental illness and, in a double-page spread, it gave over a column to Wallace.
Perhaps richest of all, was the paper's The Sun Says leader column. Headlined "Frank's Fight", it told its readers how "no one loves Frank Bruno more than The Sun".
The leader went on to opine how it had been at his side throughout his career, sharing his triumphs and helping shoulder his tragedies.
There was no sign in the paper this morning of an apology, despite the widespread condemnation, but story has already cost it £10,000 and rather a lot of humble pie.
Sun insiders quoted in the press this morning said staff at the paper were keeping their heads down as the paper's earlier headline became a media talking point throughout the day.
Jeremy Vine's BBC Radio 2 show was inundated with calls condemning the paper, with one calling its headline "sad, sick and hypocritical", with another saying "I hope whoever sanctioned the headline never has the misfortune to suffer from mental illness".
Sun editor Rebekah Wade was reported to be furious with the criticism of the paper and had the headline changed. There is no news on who gave the final go ahead for the original headline, but with so much damage down to The Sun's reputation heads could roll.
An insider at The Sun said the complaints mirrored those suffered over its most notorious and costly error, when it insensitively attacked Liverpool fans after the Hillsborough stadium disaster, which left many dead.
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