Piers: “Sharon Osbourne’s like one of her Pomeranian dogs”
TV presenter Piers Morgan lifts the lid on his celebrity pals and reveals what Simon Cowell really thinks about his brush with death
He’s rubbed shoulders with Hollywood’s biggest names – including Kim Kardashian, Madonna and his on/off pal US president Donald Trump – but Piers Morgan admits there’s only one star who has him quaking in his boots, the formidable Sharon Osbourne.
The TV presenter has revealed in the past that Sharon, 67, tried to strangle him after he said something to wind her up at a dinner after they first met on the America’s Got Talent judging panel over a decade ago, and then flashed a breast at him on a private jet. He also interviewed the star – who has been married to rocker Ozzy Osbourne for 38 years – for his Life Stories series in 2009.
FAMOUS FRIENDS
“Whenever you interview her, there’s always quite a high risk of being physically assaulted at some stage,” laughs Piers – who has an eight-year-old daughter, Elise, with his wife Celia Walden, and three sons from a previous marriage. “I think I pushed a few buttons with her.
“She’s like one of those Pomeranian dogs she’s got – one false move and they start fighting. But she’s also one of my favourite people in the world. Love her.”
Piers also counts music mogul Simon Cowell – who gave him his big TV break by making him a judge on America’s Got Talent in 2006, after famously being sacked from his job as a newspaper editor after it published ‘faked’ Iraq torture photographs – as one of his best friends.
And Piers says after Simon, 60, emotionally opened up to him on his show about his father’s sudden death from a heart attack in 2001, his recent bike smash last month – where he broke his back in three places – has been another reminder about how fragile life is.
Piers says, “He [Simon] got emotional about his father, who died on the happiest day of his life – the day he had his first number-one hit. He rang to tell his parents he had his first number one and his father had died the same day. There, right there, is what life can be like. You have this tremendous moment of happiness and it can be met by a crushing moment of tragedy, within an hour.
“I think that really defined Simon and made him realise that life’s short and you’ve got to get on with it. I was reminded of that with his crash recently. You just never know. He was just trying out this new motorised bike and you just never know when something can happen. Thank God he is all right.”
Kicking off his latest series, Piers has asked another pal, footballer-turnedHollywood actor Vinnie Jones, 55 – who tragically lost his wife Tanya at
53 last year after a battle with cancer – to return for a second interview.
Vinnie and Tanya were childhood sweethearts, married for 25 years, and have a 32-year-old daughter, Kaley.
The TV star says, “The last time I interviewed Vinnie on Life Stories, Tanya was sitting in the audience. I knew her for a long time and observed at first hand the extraordinary marriage they had, through thick and thin, for many years, and then ultimately their wonderful love story ending in complete tragedy.
INSPIRATIONAL
“I think the interview’s guaranteed to be very emotional, for obvious reasons, but I think it’s going to be incredibly inspiring, too. Vinnie is very keen about trying to help others who are going through the same hell he has been going through.”
On a happier note, Piers has also invited Captain Sir Tom Moore – a former British Army officer popularly known as “Captain Tom” after being knighted for raising over £32million for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic – onto his show.
“I feel very proud I’ve got to know Captain Tom,” says Piers. “And to have become quite friendly with him. He rings me up and we have chats. He is just a really
funny, warm, smart Yorkshire man and he can’t believe what’s happened to him.
“He wants to ride the wave of it and do as much as he can to raise money and awareness for causes, and it’s fantastic. He said he can’t believe his luck at this stage in his life. He has a book coming out and he approached us about doing Life Stories – I’m touched that he would want to do that.”
NO PALACE VISIT
And Piers – who has met
The Queen and Prince Philip – cheekily adds that he can’t see the monarch bestowing him the same honour as Captain Tom any time soon.
He laughs, “I think that the chances of ‘Arise Sir Piers’ coming out of Her Majesty’s mouth are at the lower end of the probability spectrum. In the same way I wish I had rushed out and put a bet on Captain Tom being knighted, I would probably put a bet on me not getting it. That would be a safer bet!”
By Daisy McLure
● Watch Piers Morgan’s Life Stories on Saturday 5 September on ITV, 10pm