British television personality Piers Morgan faced several resignations following his comments on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, including a comment invalidating Markle’s mental health struggles.
The morning after Sunday’s explosive interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex broadcast on CBS, Morgan, enraged, began to Good morning Great Britain– the breakfast program he co-hosts on the ITV television network – to vent his apparent indignation at the couple’s revelations.
“This is a two-hour trash-a-thon of our royal family, of the monarchy, of everything the queen has worked so hard on,” said Morgan angrily. “And everything is being done while Prince Phillip is in the hospital.”
Viewers found some of Morgan’s comments – which undermine the couple’s most worrisome claims – to be insensitive and potentially harmful.
One of those reactions was that Markle opened up about her fight against suicidal ideation during her time with the royal family, as well as claiming that the institution denied her help. Morgan deduced that Markle was lying.
“Okay, let’s see the names,” said Morgan. “Who were you? What did they say to you? I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word of what she says, Meghan Markle. I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report.”
Itv, conducting an entire mental health campaign to reach the people who need it most, while allowing piers Morgan to say it doesn’t believe a black woman has suicidal ideas on its main program, says everything you need to know about good posture -being corporate
– lucy ford (@lucyj_ford) March 8, 2021
Throughout the segment, Morgan also contested the racial elements of Markle’s experience, including a shocking statement about concerns among the royal family about how dark their son Archie’s skin color can be after birth.
Morgan responded by stating, “Sorry, that statement will be devastating the way it was portrayed in that interview. We don’t know the context of that conversation, we don’t know if it definitely happened. I’m not accepting anything they said at face value, I think it’s totally selfish. “
Hundreds of social media users were outraged by Morgan’s comments, with many calling for his removal from the program and promising to file complaints with the UK’s broadcast regulator, Ofcom.
As a result of the uproar on social media, a petition calling for the removal of Morgan Good morning Great Britain, which started in October 2019, saw a resurgence of interest. The petition currently has more than 73,000 of the 75,000 target signatures.
Morgan responded to the activity by encouraging people to sign any of the various petitions for him to be fired, which are circulating.
A lot of people here want me to be fired for expressing my opinion of Princess Pinocchio. If you want to join them, there are several petitions still circulating from the last times that you all tried, and failed, that I get fired for saying what I think.
– Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 8, 2021
“It is clear that @itv will fire him or stop doing his mental health campaign Great Britain Get Talking,” wrote comedian Jack Rooke, referring to ITV’s mental health awareness campaign. “it is one or the other and all mental health awareness celebrities / charities must be firm that you cannot transmit a complete rejection of someone’s suicidal ideation at a time like this.”
How can you post this when someone you employ turned around and said openly that Meghan is lying about suicidal thoughts .. which gives Piers Morgan the right to say that !! Dismiss him‼ ️ https://t.co/l4BbmC2nRz
– Benny James (@Beno_ldn) March 8, 2021
How is it going @piersmorgan still has a platform after years of being consistently – how can I say that – horrible and racist and misogynistic and so on and so forth and so on
– Hunter Lacey (@hunterlately) March 8, 2021
Will the rat Morgan apologize for words so inflamed and harmful? For your misogyny? Bullying? Unforgivable racism? I highly doubt it. ITV, take a stand and fire him.
– Mike P Williams (@Mike_P_Williams) March 8, 2021
“running an entire mental health campaign to reach the people who need it most, while allowing Morgan piers to say they don’t believe a black woman has suicidal ideation in their main program, says everything you need to know about good posture -being corporate, “tweeted entertainment journalist Lucy Ford.
This type of journalism that exists in this country to which we have all seen Diana being subjected is repeating itself before us. So, at what point does it become too much? @GMB editorial has a duty to care.
– Funk Butcher (@FunkButcher) March 3, 2021
Sports journalist David Law wrote: “Woman said she had suicidal thoughts in an interview. Piers Morgan says ‘I don’t believe her’ on national television. Everything else aside, this is a dangerous message.”
“If he wasn’t an announcer, a man with this level of obsessive behavior towards a woman he doesn’t know and who hasn’t done anything wrong is beyond scary,” tweeted DJ Funk Butcher, from London. “This type of journalism that exists in this country to which we have all seen Diana being subjected is repeating itself before us. So, how much does it become too much? @GMB editorials have a duty to take care of.”
Former public servant Siobhan Benita wrote: “It is not revealing that today is #InternationalWomensDay and yet, somehow, Meghan Markle’s story has become all about what Piers Morgan thinks”
Morgan’s own guests in Good morning Great Britain were unhappy with their reaction to the interview.
Television personality Trisha Goddard was praised for her participation in the segment. In a viral video, Goddard criticizes Morgan for minimizing racist overtones in Archie’s alleged discussions of skin color.
“What bothers me is why is everyone so adept at racism against blacks?” she said. “I’m sorry, Piers, you can’t say what racism is and what it is not against blacks. You can say everything else, I’ll let you say everything else you want, but leave racism with us, huh ? “
Lawyer and activist Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu took advantage of her guest appearance as an opportunity to call Morgan a “liar” and “wretch”.
“You constantly use your platform as a rich, white and privileged man, with power and influence to aggravate and increase prejudiced, racist, sexist and misogynist attacks on Meghan Markle,” she said. “And you do it so blatantly.”
Morgan had previously spoken of his personal complaint with Markle, claiming that he met the first Suits actor once in 2016 and never heard from her again after she met her future husband.
VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty Images
Updated 3/21/21, 3:45 pm ET: This article has been updated to include additional information about a petition for Piers Morgan to be fired and his reaction to it.