Susanna Reid has insisted we shouldn’t consider her “oppressed” by her controversial Good Morning Britain co-presenter Piers Morgan.
In 2014, Susanna began presenting Good Morning Britain, with Piers joining as a permanent co-host 18 months later.
Since then, the show has become known for its often heated and polarised debates, with Susanna and Piers often exchanging cross words on the panel.
However, speaking to GQ, she’s maintained that she doesn’t feel silenced or smothered sitting next to him.
“I’ve had to get stronger,” Susanna explained, on the subject of how co-anchoring with Piers has changed her presenting style. “But I don’t think you see a browbeaten woman next to him; you see someone who gives as good as she gets.
“I am not oppressed by Piers. If anything, his provocation has produced a better interaction between us.”
She continued: “I am loath to say it, but he’s a genius. He has emboldened me and empowered me.”
Susanna did note that Piers makes her “really mad” at times, adding: “He’s pushed me to get more opinionated. Critics say I take the opposite side just to wind him up. It’s not true. I take the opposite side because I don’t agree.
“I also feel a responsibility to speak out for those who aren’t in the studio to defend themselves against his obnoxious rants. I don’t agree he should be left to chew these people up and spit them out like one of his rare steaks. Piers too needs to be held to account for what he says.”
Because of Piers’ strong views and often-insensitive remarks about a number of issues, Susanna has previously come under fire and been accused of being “complicit” by remaining on the show, which she has hit back at on more than one occasion.
Last year, she tweeted that she was on the receiving end of constant criticism “from left and right” for contradicting reasons, claiming she’d been accused of being both “too opinionated” and “too quiet”.
“Getting hit from left and right,” she wrote. “Criticised for being too opinionated… and too quiet. Accused of being a snowflake and a c***. Too liberal... too enabling, ‘good-looking, but...’.”
She then added: “My skin just gets thicker by the second. Half my critics think I should leave MY paid employment because THEY take issue with the person sitting next to me.
“The other half think I should leave, BECAUSE I take issue with the person sitting next to me. I’m staying right where I am.”
Read Susanna’s full GQ interview here.