Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Piers: I’ve made it up with pal Ant
TV HOST ON PHONE CALL THAT ENDED ROW
TV presenter Piers Morgan today reveals he has settled his feud with Ant McPartlin – by phone.
The Good Morning Britain host was accused of belittling Ant’s recovery from addiction by saying he had been “sitting on his backside” and shouldn’t win a National TV Award.
That reportedly prompted furious Ant to email Piers and accuse him of mocking the mentally ill.
But Piers says they have spoken and his old Britain’s Got Talent colleague had told him: “No hard feelings.”
The Sunday Mirror found Piers in talkative mood after bumping into him at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles – where he and Susanna Reid, 48, will host an Oscars special of GMB.
Piers, 53, also spoke about his falling out with Duchess of Sussex Meghan and how he would love to grill Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, 66, on allegations of sex assault and rape.
Speaking about Ant, Piers says: “When the story came out he gave me a call and said ‘I want you to know there is no hard feelings my end, we are still pals’. I said ‘Absolutely, mate. I don’t want to fall out over this. I was teasing really, and maybe over-egged it. Now we just move on’. We are still mates, it is fine.”
But Piers, 53, adds: “I didn’t accept I had done anything particularly wrong, I think the point I was making was a valid one and I think a lot of people felt the same way.
“But I definitely said, ‘I don’t want to hurt you or upset you’. I wouldn’t, he’s a mate. He then calmed down. He’s just feeling the heat a bit because he is coming back on TV and it has been a very tricky time.”
Ant went to rehab for booze problems and prescription drug addiction after being convicted of drinkdriving in West London last April. It led to him pulling out of the BGT live shows and I’m A Celebrity.
TONGUE
Piers was nominated for GMB in the Daytime category at last month’s National Television Awards, but lost to This Morning. Ant and Declan Donnelly – both 43 – won Best Presenter for the 18th time in a row. The row began when Piers said: “They’ll win. Even though Ant’s basically been sitting on his backside, from what I can see walking his dog for the last year.”
Piers now admits Ant is a changed man and maybe isn’t able to deal with jibes like the “old Ant” could.
He explains: “Most of the stuff I do is tongue in cheek and when I was doing that, maybe I hadn’t fully appreciated he might not have been in quite the right place to deal with it like the old Ant. I get that he has been through a very difficult time, I hope he bounces back strongly and does a good year of working and I won’t be moaning next year about his dogwalking.”
Ant and Piers grew close on BGT – when Ant was
He rang to say ‘no hard feelings my end’ and I said ‘let’s move on...’
PIERS MORGAN ON CALL FROM HIS TELLY PAL ANT
co-host and Piers was a judge. He explains: “We worked on BGT for years and used to go out most nights, have a few drinks and a laugh. He came to my 50th, he’s a good lad. I wish him well with his continued recovery and I hope it all works out – and I’m sure it will.”
Piers is also close friends with Ant’s ex-wife Lisa Armstrong, a top TV make-up artist, but insists he would never take sides.
He goes on: “Lisa does my make-up on Life Stories, I’m sad about what happened and I wish them all the best.
“They have both been through a hell of a couple of years. I know from divorce you don’t want friends taking sides as they never really know what’s going on.”
The Ant bust-up came as Piers was still smarting over another falling out – with the Duchess of Sussex. He has alluded to the tiff before and now claims the mum-to-be told her former co-stars in US drama Suits to drop him as a pal.
Piers says: “I was friendly with Meghan but she ghosted me. I am not impressed.
“There seems to be a pattern of her doing that to people, it’s a bit worrying.
“From my personal experience, she is someone I thought I was pretty matey with and ‘bang’, she met somebody more important and that was it, and told other members of her show who I was friendly with to stop talking to me.
“It is rather poor social climbing. The moment she met Harry she cut everybody off who she thought might be no longer desirable in her friend and family circle. It is extraordinary behaviour, we will see how it all plays out.” As he prepares for tonight’s Oscars, Piers also speaks about Harvey Weinstein, 66, who denies rape claims.
He says of the former film producer: “You allow everyone, however bad people may think they are, to have due process, their day in court.
“I suspect when it comes to court it will be a riveting case and throw up all sorts of surprises. I would be very keen to interview Harvey Weinstein.
“He has been at the centre of the whole Me Too scandal from pretty much the start.
“He has been a figure head and the poster boy for it, we haven’t heard his side of the story yet really in any depth and he has not had to be put under the spotlight.”