Two years ago, Piers Morgan left ITV and Good Morning Britain after he made comments about Meghan Markle that caused quite the controversy. Ultimately, they led to him leaving the morning show, and now, he’s reflecting on what happened.
Recently, Morgan suggested that he was “invited to leave his job” back in 2021 because of doubts he shared about Meghan Markle’s comments regarding her mental health during the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs’ interview with Oprah Winfrey. He reflected on leaving ITV during a debate about news impartiality at the Royal Television Society conference. Variety posted his comments about the controversial situation, and he seemed to reflect on them by posing a hypothetical:
Imagine members of the Royal Family make a series of allegations, and one presenter stands up courageously and says ‘I think it’s a pack of lies.’
Continuing to speak about this situation, he said there were lots of presenters who spoke positively about Markle, and his comments could be seen as “due impartiality.” However, he said ITV “invited” him to resign.
Morgan’s departure came six years after he joined Good Morning Britain. He spoke at this conference about how he was “hired to be a deliberately provocative controversialist.” However, what he said about Markle caused controversy, and eventually led to him leaving the show. He said:
I was completely free at ‘Good Morning Britain.’ I was hired to be a deliberately provocative controversialist. In fact they got the rights to play ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ for my intro music which I don’t think was a sign I was going to be due impartial.
Back in March of 2021, Piers Morgan left Good Morning Britain after he criticized both Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after their interview with Oprah. He questioned the claims the couple made about race, and he didn’t buy Markle’s comments about her mental health and once having suicidal thoughts. On air, he was called out by his co-host Alex Beresford, and then he walked off the set. Morgan and ITV then faced many complaints, including one from the Duchess of Sussex.
Following Morgan’s departure, Ofcom, the UK media regulator, said his comments were acceptable. The TV personality noted this as well while reflecting on what happened with ITV as he said:
For five years I expressed very strongly held opinions about everything and I never had Ofcom ruling against me. And in fact the big one which caused me to leave, Ofcom eventually came down and agreed with me.
After leaving Good Morning Britain, Morgan continued to be critical of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, specifically when it came to Oprah’s docuseries The Me You Can’t See, which the Duke of Sussex participated in.
The couple has also been critical of Morgan. Prince Harry called out the TV personality this summer during his testimony in a court case against tabloids. During it, the Royal Family member explained that thinking about Morgan working at the Daily Mirror and listening to his mother’s phone calls months before she died made him “feel physically sick.”
Now, Piers Morgan hosts the series Piers Morgan Uncensored for Talk TV. It’s clear that he is still not pleased with what led to his departure from Good Morning Britain, and he believes that these comments were within his right to say on TV since he was hired to be a “deliberately provocative controversialist.”