Piers Morgan defends GMB walk out, condemns Meghan Markle’s risk to the British monarchy
Following damning on-air comments, GMB employees complained to management about Piers Morgan’s ongoing war-of-one with the Duchess of Sussex.
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Dozens of staff complained to management about Piers Morgan in the hours ahead of his now infamous walk out, new reports show.
According to The Guardian UK, a number of editorial and production members working for Good Morning Britain launched complaints about the show host’s comments regarding Meghan Markle, in particular, what viewers and staff saw as his challenging her claims of feeling suicidal and struggling with her mental health.
“Everyone is used to Piers saying things like this, but Meghan had literally said that the media wasn’t treating her fairly because of who she is, and he was just doing it again,” one complainant said.
“There has been a bit of a culture clash but it’s about that, not about his treatment of people,” another said.
“They felt that they had to be seen on the ‘morally right side of the argument,’” another said regarding the instant backlash over Morgan’s comments. “Piers wouldn’t back down and had to go.”
More than 40,000 complaints were also lodged by members of the public over his comments.
MORGAN DOUBLES DOWN
Defiant Piers Morgan has doubled down on his attack on Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and vowed he would “re-emerge” on television.
Morgan, 55, was kicked out of the hosting chair of Good Morning Britain when he said he “did not believe” Meghan was on the verge of suicide when she was a working royal.
The duchess made the emotional revelation in her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey on Monday morning UK time.
Morgan quit his ITV breakfast show when he refused producers demands to apologise following 41,000 complaints, sparked by a Twitter campaign, over concerns he was making it harder for people to talk about their mental health.
The duchess, who was once friends with Morgan but stop talking to him when she met Prince Harry, has also made a personal complaint, according to reports.
But Morgan said outside his home in London on Wednesday that had no regrets, as speculation mounted he will return to television on a new station, GB News, about to be launched in the UK.
“I believe in freedom of speech, I believe in the right to have an opinion, if people want to believe Meghan Markle that’s entirely their right,” he said.
“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 frankly contemptible.
“If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly-held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it.”
Morgan’s Twitter following increased by 100,000 overnight to 7.8 million.
He tweeted that the Good Morning Britain had beaten the BBC Breakfast Show in the ratings for the first time yesterday and also a photograph of Winston Churchill defending free speech.
“BREAKING NEWS: Good Morning Britain beat BBC Breakfast in the ratings yesterday for the first time. My work is done,” he said on Twitter.
Morgan, however, said that he would be back on television in the future.
“I think it’s fair to say, although the woke crowd will think that they’ve cancelled me, I think they will be rather disappointed when I re-emerge,” he said outside his home.
“I would call it a temporary hibernation.”
He added that he was “always in talks with people.”
GB News, which has more than $100 million start up funding, is being run by former Sky News Australia boss Angelo Frangopolous.
He has been hiring a string of high-profile British journalists, including former executive editor of The Sun Dan Wootton, who broke the Megxit story.
Mr Frangopolous told News Corp Australia: “Piers is a terrific broadcaster.”
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a guest on Good Morning Britain in the first show without Morgan, as the republican debate in Australia fires up following Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview.
Morgan’s co-host Susanna Reid said when opening the first show without Morgan: “It is certainly going to be very different but shows go and so on we go.”
MORGAN’S EXIT CONFIRMED
Piers Morgan’s bitter one-way feud with Meghan Markle has led to his departure from his top rating British television show after he staged a dramatic walk off.
Britain’s ITV accepted the firebrand interviewer’s resignation after he was the subject of more than 40,000 complaints to the UK’s media watchdog.
A Twitter campaign against Morgan, 55, prompted the wave of complaints after he said he did “not believe a word” of the Duchess of Sussex’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Meghan revealed that she had “methodical” suicidal thoughts while pregnant with baby Archie in the two-hour interview.
An ITV statement said: “Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain. ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add.”
Morgan tried to retract his statement yesterday, but even his co-host Alex Beresford was furious, calling him “diabolical” for walking off the set when he was challenged.
Morgan stood up and said, “I’m done with this, sorry, can’t do this, see you later” and walked off the TV set.
Under pressure from the tens of thousands of complaints, senior executives had asked Morgan to apologise to Megan on air according to The Sun.
But he reportedly refused and instead staged the dramatic walk out, ending his six-year stint on the show.
And it was understood other staff on the GMB set, as well as Beresford, were upset at Morgan’s comments.
He did however try to clarify his remarks, saying that he did not believe Meghan’s claims in the interview in general, rather than specifically about whether she wanted to take her own life.
“I still have serious concerns about the veracity of a lot of what she said,” he said.
“But let me just state for the record on my position on mental illness and on suicide.
“On mental illness and suicide these are clearly extremely serious things and should be taken extremely seriously and if someone is feeling that way they should get the treatment and the help they need every time. Every time.”
“It’s not for me to question if she felt suicidal, I am not in her mind and that is for her to say.”
Morgan added that he could not believe that Meghan did not receive help from the Royal Family, or senior staff, if she went to them with those concerns.
His exit comes as a new television station GB News, run by former Sky News Australia boss Angelos Frangopolous, was about to start broadcasting from as early as this month.
The presenter, who previously replaced Larry King on CNN in America and won The Apprentice on US television where he became friends with former US President Donald Trump, has been tipped to move to the new station.
Beresford, the ITV weather presenter, told Morgan during Tuesday’s: “I understand you’ve got a personal relationship with Meghan Markle, or had one, and she cut you off.
“She’s entitled to cut you off if she wants to. Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I don’t think she has but yet you continue to trash her.”
Some claimed that he may have orchestrated the walk off drama to create headlines before a move.
But his glass jaw reaction, where he said he wouldn’t take the criticism from Beresford appeared on his own show, appeared to be genuine.
Morgan has held a grudge against Meghan for cutting him out of her life after she met Prince Harry.
The TV host had a drink with Meghan at his local pub in Kensington, west London, on the same night she met the Duke of Sussex for the first time.
Since then he has complained that Meghan had “ghosted” him and became her fiercest critic, fanning the flame of negative coverage towards her to his 7.7 million Twitter followers.
Morgan said last year he had gone too far with his attacks on Meghan.
“Have I taken things a bit too far? Probably,” he told The Sunday Times.
“Do I think that will govern and temper how I talk about them going forward? Absolutely.”
He had previously labelled the couple “repulsive, deluded narcissistic tools” and called Prince Harry “the hostage”.
Morgan previously edited left-leaning British newspaper The Daily Mirror for almost a decade in the 1990s.
He infamously planned to send a Mirror-sponsored tank to Berlin to “invade” the offices of German newspaper Bild during the Euro ‘96 soccer championships.
Mr Morgan also planned to send a British Spitfire plane to drop copies of the Mirror front page over the pitch where England and Germany were due to clash.
But backlash over his war-inspired front page forced him to abort the plans.
Good Morning Britain regularly pulled in more than 1.5 million viewers and Morgan’s comments on the show generated daily headlines on newspaper websites.
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