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Just hours after his heated discussion on Meghan Markle, Piers Morgan is quitting “Good Morning Britain.”
In a statement to “Extra,” British broadcaster ITV 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.”
Earlier in the day, Morgan stormed off the set of “Good Morning Britain” after his co-host Alex Beresford called him out for his unwaveringly critical comments about Markle.
Beresford told Morgan, “I understand that you don’t like Meghan Markle. You’ve made it so clear a number of times on this program, and I understand that you had a personal relationship with Meghan Markle and she cut you off.”
“Has she said anything about you after she cut you off?” Beresford asked. “She’s entitled to cut you off if she wants to. And yet you continue to trash her.”
After he stormed off, Morgan tweeted, “I was annoyed, went for a little cool-down, and came back to finish the discussion.”
“I just prefer not to sit there listening to colleagues call me diabolical,” Piers argued, though he was already leaving the set by the time Beresford said the word “diabolical.”
After his return, Morgan told viewers, “When we talked about this yesterday, I said, as an all-encompassing thing, I don’t believe what Meghan Markle is saying generally in this interview, and I still have serious concerns about the veracity of a lot of what she said. But let me just state for the record on my position on mental illness and on 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. And if they belong to an institution like the royal family and they go and seek that help they should absolutely be given it.”
“It’s not for me to question if she felt suicidal. I am not in her mind and that is for her to say,” he added. “My real concern was a disbelief, frankly… that she went to a senior member of the royal household and told them she was suicidal and was told she could not have any help because it would be a bad look for the family. If that is true, (A) that person should be fired and (B) the royal family have serious questions that need to be answered.”
On Monday, Morgan had reacted to Markle’s suicidal confession on the morning show by asking, “Who did you go to? What did they say to you? 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.”
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has received over 41,000 complaints about Morgan’s comments. In a statement, an Ofcom spokesperson told Variety, “We have launched an investigation into Monday’s episode of ‘Good Morning Britain’ under our harm and offense rules.”
Hours after Morgan’s remarks, “Extra’s” Billy Bush spoke with Piers, who shared his take on Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. He said, “I thought she was completely disingenuous, and I also think she’s fired off a rocket here at the royal family and the monarchy and the Queen, which once fired is very hard to take back and going to cause damage.”
One of those rockets was the couple’s claim that there were discussions about the color of Archie’s skin before he was born. Harry and Megan did not disclose which royal family member or members brought up the subject.
Piers said, “We should be told who it is. Harry and Meghan made an unbelievably serious allegation against a senior member of the royal family, which is incredibly damaging to the royal family and the monarchy. Let’s have the name. They know who it is, stop smearing everybody associated and give us a name of this person!”
Oprah made it clear on “CBS This Morning” that Harry assured her it was not Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip.
Piers added, “They also say that their baby Archie has had a new rule brought in by the royals to prevent him from being a prince because of his skin color. The only person that decided titles in the royal family is the Queen… By making that charge, they’re calling the Queen a racist, and that’s a disgusting slur.”
He went on to say, “This is a complete nonsense chopped up by Meghan Markle to support, in my opinion, this very spurious and unproven charge that Buckingham Palace is full of racists.”
Addressing the different feelings about the interview, he went on to say, “I think Americans are falling for all of this. Meghan Markle is an actress, she’s given the Oscar-winning performance of her life… I think she is framing everything from a complete self-pitying, disingenuous perspective where she is the victim, right in the middle of a pandemic that has killed 2.5 million people.”