Piers Morgan appeared to sarcastically praise Meghan Markle while accepting the award for Interview of the Year at the 2023 Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) Awards.
On Tuesday (27 June), the Piers Morgan Uncensored star was given the prestigious award for his exclusive sit-down interview with football star Cristiano Ronaldo during the ceremony held at London’s Grosvenor House.
In his acceptance speech, Morgan referred to his long-standing feud with the Duchess of Sussex and credited her with his success. “I want to thank Meghan Markle because, if you think about it, without her contribution to my career I would never have gone to TalkTV,” the journalist said. “I would never have been standing here with this award.”
Morgan has been a long-time critic of the 41-year-old royal. During Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, the mother of two opened up about having suicidal thoughts while working as a senior member of the royal family. In response, the former Good Morning Britain anchor declared that he “didn’t believe a word” of Markle’s mental health struggles.
His remarks received widespread backlash as people called for Morgan to be fired from his position at ITV’s Good Morning Britain. He was fired days later after he refused to apologise for his comments.
Morgan then returned to television in 2022 with his own news and comment show, Piers Morgan Uncensored, on TalkTV. Since then, he has interviewed several controversial guests, including Kanye West, Andrew Tate, and former US president Donald Trump.
This isn’t the first time Morgan has made a public gibe at Markle. In fact, he made the same joke while accepting the award for Scoop of the Year at the Sports Journalism Awards just three months prior.
“I’d also like to thank Meghan Markle, without whom there wouldn’t be a TalkTV Piers Morgan Uncensored,” he said on stage. According to journalists at the event, his remark was met with groans and other audible expressions of discomfort from the audience.
Earlier this year, Morgan went after Prince Harry following his ITV interview with Tom Bradby. During the interview, Bradby referenced how the couple had told Winfrey that unnamed members of the royal family had raised “concerns” over “how dark” their son Archie’s skin would be.
“In the Oprah interview, you accuse members of your family of racism,” Bradby asked Harry, before the prince interjected: “No. The British press said that, right? Did Meghan ever mention, ‘they’re racists’?”
Harry added that he would not describe the incident as racist, “having lived within that family,” saying: “The difference between racism and unconscious bias... the two things are different.”
In response to Harry’s interview comments, Morgan tweeted: “I seem to recall being forced out of my job at @GMB for disbelieving Harry and Meghan’s unsubstantiated racism claims against the Royal Family.
“Now he’s finally admitted there was no racism, two questions: a) Do I get my old job back? b) Why should we believe a word they say?”
In a separate tweet, he added: “Never seen an unhappier ‘happy man’ in my life. Prince Harry’s a bitter, delusional, paranoid, family-trashing halfwit exposing and exploiting the Royals’ most personal secrets for gazillions whilst wanging on with jaw-dropping hypocrisy about media intrusion. He’s pathetic.”
