Piers Morgan made his long-awaited return to ITV on Thursday but ditched the Good Morning Britain studio to chat with Lorraine Kelly. It is the first time the network's former presenter has appeared on the channel since his dramatic exit from the news programme last March.
The controversial TV star and journalist was on Lorraine's self-titled show to chat about his brand new venture, Piers Morgan Uncenerod, which launched on new channel TalkTv on Monday, April 25. His appearance came after it was revealed that Donald Trump would be his first guest on the show which got very heated.
After talking about the upcoming interview, which has already seen the former US President hit back at his interviewer, Lorraine asked Piers if he 'regretted' how his GMB exit happened. He said that he only regretted that ITV tried to 'make me apologise for something I genuinely believe', referring to him dismissing claims made by the Duchess of Sussex in her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
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"I didn't believe her then, I don't believe her as I sit here now and I should be entitled not to believe her," Piers added. "You should be entitled to have your view," he then said to Lorraine before slamming Prince Harry's latest comments he has made in a new US interview about wanting to 'protect' the Queen.
"I don't think you can have your royal cake and eat it and I will say that very loudly on my show," Piers said. "Now, there will be people who come on my show who will say the complete opposite as, by the way, when I left Good Morning Britain, Susanna Reid did and everybody else did on the show."
Lorraine then commented: "That's why you didn't get..." before Piers interjected that he got the job on the show because he had strong views. "But you had Susanna there," Lorraine continued. "Which is why Ofcom ruled that everything was alright," referring to ITV being cleared by the broadcasting watchdog after 57,000 complaints were made against Piers' comments about Meghan Markle on GMB.
"That wasn't the only reason," Piers responded. "The last three paragraphs of the Ofcom ruling, go back and read them. They say it would have been a 'chilling infringement' of my rights to free speech have I not been able to give an opinion. Chilling is their words, not mine so I don't agree with that. We always had a balanced Good Morning Britain, that's why it was so successful."
Lorraine chipped in: "But you're not going to have a Susanna..." which Piers carried on talking over, explaining that if he had apologised for his comments on GMB he wouldn't have had to leave.
Piers then spoke about being 'cancelled' when Lorraine argued: "That's the thing though, you haven't been cancelled. You've got this massive show coming up..." as Piers commented: "Lorraine, Lorraine... I'm excited about it but I was cancelled by Good Morning Britain because I didn't want to leave... that is what cancel culture is."
After a shameless plug for his new show and TalkTV, Lorraine joked: "You're fired up," to which he replied: "I've waited a year for this." But Lorraine returned to her earlier question: "But Piers, you're not going to have someone there, at your side, tempering you."
Piers replied: "Do you think I need a TV wife? Are you pitching for the job," to which Lorraine quickly said: "No, absolutely not. Could you imagine, it'd be a divorce!"
The interview was soon wrapped up and Piers wasted no time in standing up and storming out - clearly as a joke - poking fun at his ITV past. But viewers were loving his return.
@mathertim tweeted: "@piersmorgan is on [fire] on #lorraine love it, looking forward to his new talk show. I have missed this.."
"That was the best @reallorraine interview I have seen because she couldn’t get a word in edgeways! Welcome back @piersmorgan #Lorraine #PiersMorgan," @Epic_Blonde shared.
@icerowe commented: "@piersmorgan is oddly fascinating to watch. I don’t agree with his views and I don’t like the guy, but something draws me in to watch him and his opinions so I’m very weirdly looking forward to Piers Morgan Uncensored... #PiersMorganUncensored #PiersUncensored #Lorraine."
But not everybody agreed.
"I absolutely will not be watching this new Piers Morgan show. Who wants to watch an angry, shouty man for an hour? It’s not entertainment #lorraine," @Mabel_Mouse_ tweeted.
@BradleyXO_ said: "Actually had to turn off #Lorraine in the background. piers morgan does my head in."
