Complaints pour in over Morgan’s comments about Duchess

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, complained to Britain’s ITV about host Piers Morgan’s comments on her interview with Oprah Winfrey, the channel’s news operation reported.

The U.K.’S communications regulator has received more than 41,000 complaints about Monday’s edition of “Good Morning Britain,” in which Morgan said he didn’t believe anything Meghan said in the two-hour interview that she and Prince Harry gave to Winfrey.

Meghan told Winfrey that she was so miserable during her time as a working member of the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts. When she asked for help from the royal family’s human resources staff, she was told they couldn’t help her because she wasn’t a paid employee, Meghan said.

The interview, which also included allegations of racism and insensitivity, drew divided reactions. While many people back Meghan, who is biracial, others have criticized the couple for making their damning comments while Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized in London after a heart procedure.

ITV did not cite a source acknowledging Meghan’s complaint. Britain’s Press Association also reported the matter, without citing a source.

The duchess’ representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Mind, a U.K. mental health charity, said Monday that it had contacted ITV about Morgan’s comments, adding that it is crucial for people who speak out about mental health issues to be treated with “dignity, respect and empathy.”

ITV responded with a statement saying, “It is very important that if anyone has suicidal thoughts that they should always speak out and be listened to.”

During Tuesday’s broadcast, Morgan, a tabloid editor turned TV commentator, clarified his previous comments about mental illness and suicide. These are “extremely serious things” and people should get the treatment they need, he said.

But later in the program when Alex Beresford, the weather presenter on the show, criticized Morgan’s treatment of Meghan, Morgan walked off the set saying, “Sorry, can’t do this.”

A few hours later, ITV announced that Morgan had decided to leave “Good Morning Britain.”