‘Ditched like a sack of spuds’: what’s behind Piers Morgan’s fury?

Piers Morgan and Meghan Markle used to be social media besties. Now he calls her a contemptible liar. What on earth went wrong?

Piers Morgan’s spectacular exit from his top rated TV show in Britain has made almost (almost) as many headlines as Prince Harry and Meghan’s tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.

It was that explosive interview that led to the 55-year-old presenter storming off the set of ITV’s Good Morning Britain and then resigning after he was asked to apologise for lashing Meghan’s claims she was depressed and suicidal.

It was reported on Thursday that it might have been Meghan herself who forced Morgan out of GMB after she filed a formal complaint about his remarks; she was allegedly worried not for herself, but about how his claim he didn’t believe her might affect others dealing with mental health problems.

What I said on air today with regard to mental illness and suicide.
Cc @MindCharity 👇👇 pic.twitter.com/2tIDQLBeO2

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 9, 2021

The relationship between the two is almost as toxic as that between Meghan and the royal family. Yet only a few years ago the former Daily Mirror editor and the actress were good friends, swapping stories on Twitter and discussing storylines for her television series Suits.

So what happened for Morgan to go from describing Meghan as “amazing,” to caning her as “contemptible”?

A quote of his just before the Sussex’s two hour long interview aired on CBS gives you a clue.

“I’ll watch it through a slight jaundiced eye … having been friendly with Meghan and then been ditched like a sack of spuds!” he told viewers of GMB.

In fact, their friendship had only lasted 18 months – not exactly a long-term relationship.

The pair first became friendly on social media in 2015, after Morgan, a former CNN presenter, started following four actors on Suits, including Meghan.

She was clearly flattered, messaging him on Twitter: “Well hello there – thanks for the follow. “Big fan of yours!”

That contact led to them exchanging emails and discussing everything from US gun law (bad) to spinning classes (good). Meghan would even send Morgan previews of Suits episodes for his opinion. What could possibly go wrong?

Sadly, like many relationships on social media, quite a lot.

In June 2016, Meghan messaged Morgan that she would be in Wimbledon and would love “to say hi!”

They met at Morgan’s local, the Scarsdale Tavern in Kensington – with Meghan coming straight from centre court to see Morgan. There, over a dirty martini and a pint, they discussed for an hour and a half what Morgan would only reveal as private and personal subjects.

Later, after Meghan was engaged to Harry he would tell viewers: “My take on her was she’s very beautiful, she’s very intelligent, she’s 35, she’s been divorced, her dad’s white her mum’s black and she had some problems with that growing up.

“I was really impressed I thought she was a very nice woman, very suited to Harry and different, bi-racial, an actress.”

He added: “Trust me I’ll be milking that 90 minutes if she becomes our princess for the rest of my days.”

Piers Morgan storms off set after a row with co-presenter Alex Beresford over his remarks about Meghan’s depression.

Morgan said his “great buddy” went straight from their lunch to her first meeting with Harry, and that was the last he ever heard from her. Once she met her prince, it seems she had no more time for the outspoken TV man. He didn’t even get an invitation to the wedding.

“She met Prince Harry at the dinner that night, went on a solo date with him the next night, and I never heard from her again. Not a word. I’d been ghosted,” he said.

At first, he tried to be happy for her, joking: “I blame Harry. He has stopped me getting those new episodes of Suits.” When the couple became engaged, he congratulated Harry on getting a “real keeper,” although he couldn’t help another dig: “Even if your romance did destroy my beautiful friendship with the amazing Meghan Markle.”

But then he turned. Was it the lack of a wedding invite or just a growing belief that the “amazing” Ms Markle wasn’t the woman he thought?

Who knows?

But he took Thomas Markle’s side in the father-daughter feud and once Harry and Meghan stepped down from their roles as senior royals, he let fly. Over and over and over again. And again.

The pair were now “grasping, selfish, scheming Kardashian-wannabes … the world’s most tone-deaf, hypocritical, narcissistic, deluded, whiny brats”. Etc.

So he was never going to praise Meghan for her performance on Oprah, which he described afterwards as “Two hours of disingenuous, horrible, one-sided, self-serving, delusional claptrap!”

Morgan added: “I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word she said, Meghan Markle. I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report.”

On Monday, I said I didn’t believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t. If you did, OK. Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on. Thanks for all the love, and hate. I’m off to spend more time with my opinions. pic.twitter.com/bv6zpz4Roe

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 10, 2021

Cue on-air row with co-presenter, 41,000 complaints, a probe by the media watchdog, a demand for an apology and Morgan’s exit from GMB.

On Thursday, Morgan doubled down on his comments, telling reporters outside his home in Kensington: “If people want to believe Meghan Markle, that is entirely their right. I don’t believe almost anything that comes out of her mouth.”

He added: “I think the damage she has done to the British monarchy and to the queen, at a time when Prince Philip is lying in hospital, is enormous and frankly contemptible.”

Morgan also insisted that he would be back, describing his disappearance from TV screens as a “temporary hibernation.”

Addressing “the woke crowd” calling for him to be “cancelled,” he assured reporters: “I think they will be rather disappointed when I re-emerge.”

He is almost certainly right about his return. Ironically, GMB beat its rival, BBC Breakfast in the ratings for the first time on Morgan’s last day, something he was quick to point out on Twitter.

BREAKING NEWS: Good Morning Britain beat BBC Breakfast in the ratings yesterday for the first time.
My work is done. 😎

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 10, 2021

Today, in the wake of his departure, ITV shares dived by 4.3 per cent. Meanwhile former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, now the chairman of the incoming television news channel GB News, announced on air that he would be “delighted” to have a talk with Morgan about a job on GB, saying he’d be a “huge asset to GB news.”

“Any network worth it’s salt could find a role for a broadcaster of his calibre,” Neil told the BBC.

It won’t please Meghan, but Morgan will most certainly be back, more pugnacious than ever.