PIERS PRESSURE
Meghan makes formal complaint to ITV about controversial broadcaster
The woke crowd will think they’ve cancelled me, but I will re-emerge
PIERS MORGAN FORMER PRESENTER ON ITV’S GMB
PIERS Morgan continued to attack Meghan Markle yesterday as it emerged she personally complained to ITV about his claim that she had lied about feeling suicidal.
Morgan quit ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Tuesday night after a backlash against his comments about Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview.
The Duchess of Sussex formally complained to ITV before he quit. It is understood the complaint was not about the attack on her personally, but the way his comments would affect mental health issues generally and those dealing with their own issues.
In the Oprah interview, Prince Harry’s wife spoke of feeling suicidal while pregnant with their son Archie.
Speaking outside his London home yesterday, Morgan, 55, continued piling abuse on the Duchess, describing her comments in the interview as a “diatribe of bilge”.
Despite the controversy, Morgan may walk straight into a new job with GB News, a TV channel launching this year. Chairman Andrew Neil told BBC Radio 4 he thought Morgan was “hard to control” and had “crossed the line” with ITV, but had helped GMB challenge BBC Breakfast’s ratings.
He said: “I think Piers Morgan would be a great asset to GB News and we’ll certainly talk to him about it.”
Neil insisted GB News did not want “shouting, ranting, or raving” and said Morgan needed “a little period of quiet reflection”. He added: “I wouldn’t simply transfer what he did at GMB straight to GB News. We’d love to talk to Piers about this but I think we’d want to do things in a bit of a different way.”
Morgan stormed off GMB on Tuesday morning during a row with weather presenter Alex Beresford, who accused him of “continuing to trash” Meghan because she “cut you off ”. Morgan has moaned about thinking Meghan was a friend before she ghosted him in 2016.
ITV announced Morgan’s resignation after Ofcom received 41,000 complaints about his comments about Meghan.
Yesterday, he said his departure
from GMB was “amicable”, following reports he had quit rather than apologise for his remarks.
He said: “I had a good chat with ITV and we agreed to disagree.”
He then defended his comments and repeated his “opinion” that Meghan had lied.
He said: “I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in the right to be allowed to have an opinion. If people want to believe Meghan Markle, that’s entirely their right. I don’t believe almost anything that comes out of her mouth and I think the damage she’s done to the British monarchy and to the Queen at a time when Prince Philip is lying in hospital is enormous and contemptible. If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge she came out with in that interview, so be it.”
Asked about his future plans, he said: “Although the woke crowd will think they’ve cancelled me, I think they will be rather disappointed when I re-emerge. I’d call it a temporary hibernation.”
He added that he was “always in talks with people”.
ITV bought the rights to the Oprah interview and are thought to be keen to stay onside with Harry and Meghan.
US website Deadline quoted an ITV Studios insider, saying ITV boss Kevin Lygo had forced Morgan out. The source said: “He was definitely pushed. Pushed in that Kevin agreed he should go. Quite a few people in that studio didn’t like Piers.”
GMB host Susanna Reid began yesterday’s show by reading a statement about Morgan.
She said: “Piers has decided to leave the programme. Some of you may cheer and others may boo. He has been my presenting partner, Monday to Wednesday, for more than five years. He has been a voice for many of you and a voice that many of you have railed against. It is certainly going to be very different, but shows go on.”
Ranvir Singh, Reid’s co-presenter yesterday, added: “Well said.”
Singh, who described Morgan as “Marmite”, is tipped, along with Ben Shephard and Richard Madeley, to succeed him.
On Morgan’s last day, GMB beat BBC Breakfast in the ratings for the first time, with 1.3million viewers. He tweeted: “My work is done.”
During yesterday’s GMB, Morgan told his Twitter followers: “Thanks for all the love, and hate. I’m off to spend more time with my opinions.”