‘Good Morning Britain’ presenters Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan clashed during Wednesday’s show (18 January), after co-host Charlotte Hawkins was picked to read the day’s football headlines.
Regular sports presenter Sean Fletcher was not available to read the news in the most recent episode of the daytime show, a duty which - in his absence - usually falls to Piers.
You can imagine his discontent, then, when Charlotte got to read the headlines instead, moaning live on air: “I usually get asked to do the sports when Sean’s off and today, for some weird reason, they let you do it.”
Clearly sensing an undertone to Piers’s comment, Charlotte insisted that “girls can do sport too”, to which he responded simply: “Yeah… bit sexist.”
A baffled Susanna Reid then replied: “What? No, that’s not sexist. Saying that women can do things too, is actually the opposite of sexism.”
Piers, undeterred, then attempted to explain himself, saying: “It’s a man’s role on the show, because Sean is the sports person. In his absence the other man on the team should do it.”
Realising he was fighting a battle he was only going to lose, Piers then briskly changed the subject and returned to his auto-cue.
Susanna and Piers’s contrasting views have made for many an awkward moment in the ‘GMB’ studio, such as the morning of the US election result, when viewers noted a frosty atmosphere between the two of them.
Last month, Susanna confessed that spending her weekday mornings with Piers had given her a better understanding of the term “love/hate relationship”.
‘Good Morning Britain’ airs weekdays from 6am on ITV.