Former Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan just made British television history, but this isn’t exactly a record for the Hall of Fame. According to the UK media regulator Ofcom, to date, Morgan has racked up over 57,000 complaints for the loudly impotent rant where he essentially called “Pinocchio Princess” Meghan Markle a liar after she confessed to Oprah Winfrey that she felt suicidal during her time with the royal family. “I wouldn’t believe her if she read me a weather report,” Morgan said. When confronted by co-host Alex Beresford, who accused Morgan of trashing Markle after she “cut him off” following a date in 2015, Morgan stormed off set and by that afternoon he officially left the show following intense public backlash, which we now know has reached historic levels.
Via Variety:
Morgan’s remarks on ITV breakfast show “Good Morning Britain” attracted 57,121 complaints, according to statistics published by Ofcom on Wednesday. This breaks a longstanding record, from 2007, when participants Jade Goody (now deceased) and Danielle Lloyd’s remarks about Indian actor Shilpa Shetty on Channel 4’s “Celebrity Big Brother” drew 44,500 complaints.
Predictably, Morgan caught wind of his record number of complaints and attempted to shrug the whole thing off. “Only 57,000? I’ve had more people than that come up & congratulate me in the street for what I said,” Morgan tweeted. “The vast majority of Britons are right behind me.”
Only 57,000? I’ve had more people than that come up & congratulate me in the street for what I said. The vast majority of Britons are right behind me. https://t.co/bVYbU1RcHA
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 17, 2021
Of those 57,000 complaints, one was specifically from Markle herself who reportedly filed a formal complaint directly with the CEO of ITV. According to Chris Ship, the network’s royal correspondent, Markle raised concerns about how Morgan’s words would “affect the issue of mental health and what it might do to others contemplating suicide.”
The controversy surrounding Morgan has also reached across the pond where Sharon Osbourne is currently facing both a public backlash and an internal investigation into racist remarks after she defended Morgan during an episode of The Talk. It’s all a fine and stupid mess.
(Via Variety)