When Meghan Markle sat down to drop truth-bombs with Oprah Winfrey, she was aiming them at the royal family. The fact that the fallout cost her most relentless and petulant critic his job is just welcome collateral damage.
Now, it seems she may have had a direct hand in Piers Morganâs ejection from the flagship breakfast show Good Morning Britain.
It was reported today by Chris Ship, ITVâs royal correspondent, that Meghan âformally filed a complaintâ to ITV, the network which broadcasts the show, on Monday, after Morgan rubbished Meghanâs claims as untrue.
Ship said of Meghanâs complaint, in a tweet, âItâs thought to have been sent to the broadcasterâs CEO. Meghan raised concerns about how @piersmorganâs words affect the issue of mental health and what it might do to others contemplating suicide.â
Morgan was fired from the show on Tuesday, hours after a flaming on-air row with the showâs weatherman, Alex Beresford, who said Morganâs rants against Meghan were âdiabolical.â Morgan subsequently stormed off the set.
However, the timing of Meghanâs complaint suggests she was objecting to Morganâs remarks on Monday, when he said, âIâm sorry, I donât believe a word she says... I wouldnât believe her if she read me a weather report.â
Mental health advocates and critics were outraged at his suggestion that Meghanâs experiences about having suicidal thoughts were fabricated.
On Tuesday, Morgan sought to dial down the controversy a little after returning to set, saying that he believed mental illness and suicide are topics that should be âtaken extremely seriously.â But he maintained he had âserious concerns about the veracity of a lot of what [Meghan] said.â
It has been reported that over 40,000 complaints were filed over his remarks, one of which was sent on Meghanâs behalf.
In a tweet sent while the program was on air Wednesday morning, Morgan appeared to confirm that his refusal to retract his comments lay behind his exit.
He wrote, âOn Monday, I said I didnât believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. Iâve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still donât. If you did, OK. Freedom of speech is a hill Iâm happy to die on.â He said he was âoff to spend more time with my opinionsâ and appended a Winston Churchill quote about free speech.
Speaking outside his home, he told Sky News that his departure had been âamicableâ and said, âI had a good chat with ITV and we agreed to disagree.â He said he would enter a âtemporary hibernationâ and was âalways in talks with peopleâ about other job opportunities.