Piers Morgan, the abrasive broadcaster, spectacularly left his job hosting a popular British morning television show after heavily criticizing Meghan Markle over her allegations of racism and isolation by the royal family.
Morgan has been under fire for his unsparing criticism of Markle following the Oprah Winfrey interview, which aired in the U.K. on Monday night after appearing on U.S. television on Sunday.
Morgan on Monday said he didn’t “believe a word she said,” adding “I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report.” The U.K. communications regulator Ofcom received more than 41,000 complaints over Morgan’s repeated criticism of Markle.
On the “Good Morning Britain” program, fellow broadcaster Alex Beresford said Morgan doesn’t like the fact that Markle stopped talking to him. “She’s entitled to cut you off if she wants to,” Beresford said. That is a reference to Morgan’s own description of his very brief connection to the Duchess of Sussex, in which the two met for friendly drinks, and then Markle never talked to him again.
Morgan then stormed off the set.
He won’t ever come back.
ITV, the broadcaster, put out a statement saying, “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.”
The news delighted some on Twitter.
Ahead of the announcement, Morgan had his own characterization of this behavior.
It was an eventful 24 hours for ITV
ITV,
+3.99%,
which airs “Good Morning Britain” and showed the Oprah interview. ITV reported its 2020 adjusted earnings per share slumped 22% on a 16% drop in revenue. ITV also said it would wait to resume dividend payments.
ITV is expecting a better 2021 — it expects advertising revenue to be up 8% in March, and up as much as 75% in April as most of its programs are now back in production. ITV said it is counting on programs including the delayed Euro 2020 soccer tournament and the return of “Love Island” to boost advertising demand.
