Piers Morgan has reflected on his departure from Good Morning Britain last year, as he prepares for the launch of his new nightly show on TalkTV.
After five years at the helm of GMB, Piers announced suddenly in March 2021 that he would be stepping down as host with immediate effect.
News of his exit came the day after he made headlines for casting doubt on claims made by Meghan Markle that she had experienced suicidal thoughts during her time as a senior member of the Royal Family, with Piers’ remark eventually inciting a record number of complaints to Ofcom.
More recently, it was confirmed that Piers has reunited with his former employer Rupert Murdoch, to front a nightly show on TalkTV which will begin later this month.
During a press event to promote his show Piers Morgan Uncensored, the divisive broadcaster was asked about his exit from GMB, which he branded “ridiculous”, “absurd” and “a farce”.
“I used to think that I was uncensored,” he claimed. “And then, of course, when I left Good Morning Britain it turned out that I actually was being censored, in the sense that I was told I had to apologise for disbelieving Princess Pinochio, or I would have to leave the building. So I took the ‘leave the building’ option.”
He described the decision as a “sad moment” for himself, the show and his “poor TV wife” Susanna Reid, joking: “It was a very dramatic divorce. And I thought it was the wrong call by ITV.
“They had the hottest show on TV, it had just beaten the BBC to become the number one-rated breakfast show in the country. I wasn’t expecting a carriage clock, but I wasn’t expecting to be escorted out of the building. So it was all a bit dramatic.”
He continued: “It’s interesting to me that Ofcom, the government-appointed TV regulator, five months later, found in my favour, and said that it would have been a chilling infringement on my rights to free speech had I not been able to say, ‘I don’t believe somebody’. So the whole thing seemed to me a bit ridiculous.”
As complaints about Piers’ conduct flooded in to Ofcom, it was reported that the Duchess of Sussex had also filed an official complaint to ITV, which the former Britain’s Got Judge has now blasted as an example of “cancel culture”.
He said: “The moment you try and get me fired, as Megan Markle did on Good Morning Britain, where she personally writes to the boss of ITV and demands my head on a plate, that is cancel culture right there. And the idea that ITV rolled over to it is ridiculous.
“But that’s why I’m here, and I feel, in a way, grateful to them, because I think this is a very exciting new platform and opportunity.”
“The mystery about the ITV thing was that I was hired specifically to have strongly-held opinions,” he added. “So, that’s why I felt the way I had to leave in the end was so absurd. And the more you look back on it, the more you go, ‘what was that all about?’.
“I thought the whole thing was a farce, and I’m delighted that as a result of the farce, we’ve ended up with a whole network that is now dedicated to preventing that kind of farce from recurring.”
Making a somewhat questionable comparison, Piers added that he felt “like Nelson Mandela when he came out of prison”, joking: “It’s like the long walk to free speech freedom.”
Piers went on to insist that he would not be “looking to steal Good Morning Britain viewers”, before throwing some shade at the daytime TV show, which has brought in a string of rotating guest hosts since Piers’ exit.
“I would be looking to pick up all those who’ve stopped watching [GMB],” he claimed. “Which, judging by when I walk around and judging by their ratings, is a lot of people.
“So if you loved Good Morning Britain when I was on it, and you miss me in that way, you know where to find me. There are a lot of people who I think were annoyed about what went down. And they’d be the ones I’d be after.”
Since stepping down from GMB over a year ago, Piers has made a number of seemingly conflicting comments about the nature of his exit.
While he initially said that his departure was “amicable” and that it was his own decision to leave, he later blamed “cancel culture” for him “losing” his GMB role.
The morning after the news of his exit, Piers told reporters: “I had a good chat with ITV and we agreed to disagree. I’m just going to take it easy and see how we go.
“If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly-held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it,” he added at the time.
More recently, Piers admitted his departure from GMB had been a “bruising” experience.
“Effectively I was censored at my previous job,” he claimed. "[I was] told to apologise to Meghan Markle for an honestly-held opinion, which obviously I wasn’t going to do.”
Piers Morgan Uncensored will launch on TalkTV at 8pm on Monday 25 April.