FOR years, Piers Morgan has never held back from vehemently criticising Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, and her husband, Prince Harry.
The controversial TV personality struck again during an interview with 60 Minutes Australia on Sunday, 6 June, 2021, expressing his outrage over his departure from GMB. But what has kick-started his feud with the former Suits star?
Read our Meghan and Harry live blog for the latest updates
How do Piers Morgan and Meghan Markle know each other?
Piers, who has now QUIT Good Morning Britain following a row with co-star Alex Beresford, and Meghan have been on each others’ radar for years.
They first got in contact after he followed her on Twitter and she messaged him saying she was a fan of his.
The pair messaged for a while, and when Meghan visited the UK to watch Serena Williams at Wimbledon they met for a drink.
Piers later revealed: “We had two hours in the pub, she had a couple of dirty martinis and pints – we got on brilliantly.
“Then I put her in a cab, and it turns out it was the cab that took her to a party where she met Prince Harry.
“The next night they had a solo dinner and that was the last I ever heard from Meghan Markle. I never heard from her again – Meghan Markle ghosted me.”
Piers said he was “ditched like a sack of spuds!”
What is Piers Morgan feud with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry?
Over the years, Piers has criticised Meghan, repeatedly calling her “fake”, a “ruthless social climber” and accused her of using her marriage to “get to the top”.
The media broadcaster has also described Prince Harry as hypocritical, accusing the Duke of “playing the victim”.
It is long-running commentary that has seen Morgan accused of bullying, sexism, and racism.
While the feud has remained one sided with the Duke and Duchess staying tight-lipped on Morgan’s take-downs, the pair have been vocal in their criticism of the media.
What has Piers Morgan said about Megxit?
Piers tweeted Harry and Meghan “bullied” the Queen into allowing them to leave the Royal Family.
He wrote on social media: “BREAKING: Harry/Meghan have successfully bullied the Queen into letting them have their cake & eat it.”
Before the talks he branded Prince Harry a “whiny, entitled parody of himself… bullying Queen into a woke monarchy.”
He went on to call the couple “two spoiled brats” whose behaviour towards the Queen is “utterly outrageous”, again attacking the 10-year veteran army captain Harry, calling him “weak, whiny and miserable”.
When the pair announced their interview with Oprah, Piers’ outrage only increased.
What is Piers Morgan’s history with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry?
Morgan’s feud with Meghan stems back to 2015, when the broadcaster says the now-Duchess “ghosted” him.
2015
- In 2015, the pair were friendly and followed each other on Twitter.
- Piers Morgan said their friendship started over his interest in Meghan’s then acting role in US drama, Suits. He said: “She even started sending me early preview episodes of her show so we could debate juicy storylines yet to air – which we did, at length.”
2016
- In 2016, the pair met for drinks in London at Piers’ favourite pub while Markle was in town.
- Morgan described the incident: “She met Prince Harry at the dinner that night, went on a solo date with him the next night, and I never heard from her again. Not a word. I’d been ghosted.”
- In December 2016, Morgan wrote about Harry and Meghan’s courtship after the pair were photographed together for the first time.
- On rumours of their engagement, Piers encouraged the Prince to “bring it on!” not just because he believed Meghan to be superbly well suited to Harry and “perfect princess material”, but also because the country needed “a royal wedding to take the edge off these tumultuous times”.
2017
- Following Harry and Meghan’s engagement in November 2017, Morgan wrote he was “delighted” to hear of the news, joking the prince had “finally made a sensible decision when it comes to his personal life”.
- In December 2017, Piers dubbed Meghan a “hero” in his annual summary of the year that was. He wrote: “She’s a lovely lady; smart, warm, funny and more than a match for Prince Harry. Their engagement gave us all some much-needed cheer.”
2018
- In May of 2018, in the lead up to Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding, Morgan wrote of his sympathy towards for Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, who would not be invited to the royal wedding amid the family drama that had ensued.
- Morgan also claimed the upcoming nuptials were a “massive PR bonanza for the royal family” which they had been “milking like ravenous fairy farmers.” But he continued to sing praise for Meghan, writing: “I feel incredibly sorry for her that her family are betraying her so badly.”
- Following the royal wedding, Morgan penned a warning to the now-Duchess: “If you thought being a royal girlfriend was difficult, just wait until you see how hard it is being a royal wife,” and suggested she should think long and hard about her “fight for feminism” now that she was a royal. The royal family doesn’t do politics, he wrote.
- In July 2018, Morgan criticised the Duchess of being hypocritical, claiming she could not encourage others to partake in humanitarian work when she had turned her back on her sick father. He wrote: “She prides herself on charity work, yet seems to have forgotten that old truism: charity begins at home.”
- By December 2018, Piers’ analysis of the Duchess was scathing. He wrote: “Meghan Markle is a ruthless social climbing actress who has landed the role of her life and is determined to milk it for all she can – and that’s why the Palace is beginning to turn on her.”
- A week later, he criticised the Duchess for not speaking with her father in over 8 months, cutting him out of her life before the royal wedding took place.
2019
- In February 2019, the Duke and Duchess travelled to the city of Bristol in the West of England, to visit a small charity, One25, that helps support hundreds of street workers, donating clothes, food and providing a safe place for the workers. Morgan criticised Meghan for the visit, in which she handed out bananas inscribed with empowering messages. He wrote: “Giving prostitutes an ‘empowering’ banana after they’ve spent the night subjecting their bodies to often vile, sexually depraved men… what were they supposed to do with these signed bananas exactly?”
- In March 2019, Morgan wrote that his frustration with the “woke” Duke and Duchess stemmed from their inability to “practice what they preach”. He claimed it was hypocritical for the Duke to speak of the need to protect wildlife when Prince Harry was previously a notorious trophy-hunter, and that his speech on climate change was made irrelevant, as the pair took private jets and helicopter rides rather than travelling by train.
- In April 2019, Morgan wrote an enraged piece, questioning “Why should the taxpayer fork out millions to make Harry and Meghan the King and Queen of Africa just to keep them away from Wills and Kate?” He went on to argue Meghan was wasting taxpayer dollars at an astounding rate: “Since marrying into the British Royal Family, she’s already shown a gleeful propensity for spending money in a manner so extravagant she’s been dubbed ‘Meghan Antoinette’ in honour of the infamously over-the-top 18th Century French Queen.”
- Morgan also slammed Meghan’s lavish, five-day $500,000 baby shower at a five-star hotel in New York, attended by celebrities Serena Williams and Amal Clooney.
- In May 2019, following the birth of the Duke and Duchess’ first child Archie, Morgan tweeted: “Trying, but currently failing, to muster up a semblance of enthusiasm for this royal baby.” He went on to criticise the new parents for being overly secretive, even with palace staff, over their newborn. “But this exclusionary treatment of the media is ultimately self-defeating: without media attention, interest in the royals would quickly die. They shun us at their peril.”
- In June 2019, Morgan was scathing on discovering that British taxpayers paid £2.4million to refurbish the Duke and Duchess’ new home, Frogmore Cottage.
- In July 2019, Piers presented a 10-point guide on how Meghan could become a popular princess, the first note calling out the Sussex’s request for privacy – arguing they are public figures, and should behave as public people.
- Later that month, Piers slammed the Duchess’ guest-editing of the September edition of Vogue magazine rather than attend royal duties. He wrote that if Meghan “was reportedly ‘too busy caring for her baby’ to meet the President of her own country on his state visit to the UK” she shouldn’t have taken on the editing project.
- In October 2019, Piers responded to the Duke’s statement against reporting of his wife in British tabloid media, writing “Stop playing the victim Harry – you and Meghan brought the negative press on yourselves, and just when you turn things around, you ruin it all.”
2020
- In January 2020, as news broke of the Duke and Duchess’ plan to step back from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family, Piers Morgan was fast to condemn the pair. He wrote: “I’ve seen some disrespectful royal antics in my time, but for pure arrogance, entitlement, freed and wilful disrespect, nothing has ever quite matched the behaviour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
- He later called for the Queen to fire the Duke and Duchess, accusing Meghan Markle again of being a “selfish social climber.”
- In his columns, he labelled them “the world’s most tone-deaf, hypocritical, narcissistic, deluded, whiny brats” and “appallingly bitter, staggeringly self-obsessed, utterly deluded, and woefully tone-deaf laughing stocks”.
2021
- Piers’ anger only grew when it was announced that Meghan and Harry would be doing a 2-hour long interview with Oprah.
- He said: “This interview is an absolutely disgraceful betrayal of the Queen and the Royal Family. I expect all this vile destructive self-serving nonsense from Meghan Markle – but for Harry to let her take down his family and the Monarchy like this is shameful.”
- Following Meghan and Harry’s tell-all, broadcasted on CBS and on ITV on Monday, 8 March, Piers slammed the couple again on Good Morning Britain, branding them “liars.”
- On 9 March, a row with weatherman Alex Beresford led Piers to storm off the set of Good Morning Britain. Alex had reminded Piers of his past friendship with Meghan, which allegedly began when she messaged him on Twitter before “ghosting him” after they had met for drinks in 2016.
- A statement released in the early evening of 9 March, 2020, read : “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.” It was later reported that Meghan allegedly lodged a formal complaint to ITV following Piers’ comments about her. Over 57, 000 complaints are said to have been delivered to Ofcom against the former GMB presenter following the segment.
- In April, 2021, Piers chose Fox News for his first interview since the scandal. “I still don’t believe what they were saying”, said Piers to Fox host, Tucker Carlson, “and in particular, I don’t believe what Meghan Markle was saying.”
- On Sunday, 6 June, he again put Meghan and Harry on blast during an interview with 60 Minutes Australia, accusing the young mother of “telling untruths.” He also revealed he chose to quit instead of apologising to Meghan.
- Piers was far from sorry when commenting on Meghan and Harry’s daughter’s name, on Australia’s Today programme. Born on 4 June, 2021, the baby was named Lilibet “Lili” Diana, as a tribute to Lady Diana and the Queen. Piers called the name “ironic”, stating it came as a surprise to him : “you have this couple who have been trashing the Royal Family and the monarchy for the last few weeks and they have named the baby after the Queen.”
