Complex sentence: Later he claimed he had been joking, but added that cats used to be eaten in the area, historically; he was widely criticised in the media for his comments and ultimately dropped from the television network.
Split into simpler sentences: Later he claimed he had been joking, but added that cats used to be eaten in the area, historically. Joke or not, Bigazzi was widely criticised in the media for his comments and ultimately dropped from the television network.