Piers Morgan and Donald Trump were known to be on good terms before the president's actions in office ended with turmoil on the streets of Washington DC.
A clip released by Morgan of a new interview between the pair appeared to show Trump storming out.
The former president has since released audio that appears to refute the "most explosive interview of the year" ended in Trump storming off, but with him and Morgan thanking each other.
It may appear that the promotional interview was used to imply that Trump had stormed off to generate interest in the interview on new channel TalkTV.
Morgan tweeted in response to criticism from Donald Trump Jr: "I learned all my promo skills from you guys on Celebrity Apprentice! Nothing misleading or deceptive about it, Don - your dad just got very annoyed when I told him I don’t believe the 2020 election was rigged or stolen. Aside from that, it was a terrific interview."
Were Piers Morgan and Donald Trump friends?
Piers Morgan and Donald Trump were once friends, but their bond deteriorated during the former president's time in office.
Trump and Morgan were friends for around 15 years and Piers took part in the US Celebrity Apprentice, hosted by Trump. Aired in early 2008, Piers won the contest.
Signs their relationship was hitting bumps in the road came in 2017 when Piers criticised some of the president's politics, disagreeing with the Republican's move to ban immigrants from seven countries.
He said on Loose Women: "The principle of what he is doing is understandable; the way he has gone about it, in my view, is unacceptable. But let’s not just say that every time he speaks he’s a monster, because it’s not true."
Trump became heavily criticised during his presidency for false statements, as well as being put under fire for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
When Trump suggested injecting people with bleach to tackle Covid in 2020, Morgan told the president to "shut the f**k up". They buried the hatchet again in the run-up to the presidential election after Trump unfollowed his friend on Twitter.
Piers explained the situation on ITV, saying: "I spoke to him, he rang me out of the blue, last weekend. We had a half an hour conversation about everything, he knows how critical I've been about the coronavirus.
"I called him out, and I said you should start refollowing me on Twitter, because he unfollowed me when I told him to shut the bleep up about coronavirus... and it all got pretty unpleasant.
"But he saw me talk about it and he called me up, and you know I still consider him to be a friend, I've known him a long time."
Why did Piers Morgan and Donald Trump's friendship end?
Piers Morgan and Donald Trump's friendship ended in the wake of the January 6 riots at the Capitol building.
Trump's false claim to have won the 2020 presidential election, despite showing no credible evidence of voter fraud, meant that his supporters were angered by the result.
On January 6, Trump-supporting protests stormed the Capitol building and a number of people died during the insurrection. The once-admirer of Trump called out the 45th President of the US and said his "harshest critics have been vindicated".
Morgan tweeted: "So many appalling images from last night’s mayhem in USA but nothing worse than this. President Trump’s shameful legacy will now be that a confederate flag was raised inside the US Capitol building for the first time ever. It didn’t happen even during the Civil War. Horrifying."
Morgan then wrote a column for MailOnline explaining why "monster" Trump should step down from the job.
He said: "In the past year, he has morphed into a monster that I no longer recognise as someone I considered to be a friend and thought I knew.
"His dreadful leadership during the coronavirus pandemic and George Floyd protests was bad enough and laid bare his inherent narcissism, shockingly incompetent crisis management, and woeful inability to offer empathy or comfort to grieving and suffering Americans."
In order to calm the crowds, Trump was forced to make a statement against the crowds in which he called on the "beautiful people" rioters to go home, amid a "fraudulent election".
"We love you, you're very special," he said.
In response, Morgan said in his column: "I'm a very loyal person when it comes to friends, however flawed they may be, not least because I'm no Mother Teresa myself.
"But I'm done with Donald Trump.
"I can't remain friends with someone who says he 'loves' a bunch of violent Nazi sympathisers and white supremacists who've just launched a deadly attack on the epicentre of US democracy itself and thinks they're 'special people'."
