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'I Was Hired to Be Controversial': Piers Morgan Defends His Harsh Opinions About Meghan Markle Years After Being Fired From 'Good Morning Britain'

Piers Morgan's negative comments about Meghan Markle led to the journalist leaving his job on 'Good Morning Britain,' but he believed he was 'hired to be controversial.'

Piers Morgan had a public exit from Good Morning Britain after making a series of harsh comments about Meghan Markle. The journalist received a significant amount of criticism for his lack of neutrality when discussing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and he was seen as insensitive when he alluded to the actress lying about suicidal ideation.

Morgan addressed his public exit while at the Royal Television Society conference on Thursday, September 21.

"Imagine members of the royal family make a series of allegations, and one presenter stands up courageously and says 'I think it’s a pack of lies,'" Morgan said.

Morgan felt as though his school of thought helped create a level of balance on the morning show, but executives didn't necessarily agree. Shortly after his on-air tantrum, Morgan claimed he was "invited to leave his job."

Although the former editor's thoughts weren't well-received, he believes he joined the show to ruffle feathers.

"I was completely free at Good Morning Britain," Morgan said. "I was hired to be a deliberately provocative controversialist. In fact, they got the rights to play Sympathy for the Devil for my intro music which I don’t think was a sign I was going to be due impartial."

"For five years I expressed very strongly held opinions about everything and I never had Ofcom ruling against me. And in fact the big one which caused me to leave, Ofcom eventually came down and agreed with me," he added.

Fellow broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy defended Morgan at their public forum.

"The product of this is that Piers is not on ITV and that is a shame," the Channel 4 anchor said. "I don’t think we want to get into a situation where people like him are forced off into the fringes of the internet."

At the conference, Morgan doubled down on his approach.

"I do believe in a thriving democratic society everybody should be entitled to have their opinions," he shared. "Really the more interesting debate for me right now is not the nuance of impartiality, it’s about the real problem [which] is establishing what facts are, what truth is."

"We’re living in a fake news era where there are deliberate attempts to subvert the reality that’s facing us in front of our very eyes," Morgan continued. "When you have those debates either you get shot down like J.K. Rowling or you get told you’re taking part in some orchestrated, trumped-up culture war."

             

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Morgan isn't fond of Meghan and Prince Harry, but the Sussexes have been publicly feuding with the reporter for years. During his court battle against the U.K. tabloid industry, Harry accused Morgan of allowing Daily Mirror staff to hack his cellphone.

The Royal Observer previously reported Morgan shut down the assertion.

"I’ve never hacked a phone. I’ve never told anybody to hack a phone," Morgan said in court documents.

The broadcaster later shamed people who engaged in the unethical act and branded them as "lazy journalists being lazy."

Despite Morgan's denial, Harry discussed the fear he developed after believing that the television personality was listening to his private calls.

"The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a 'nightmare time' three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick," Harry said in his witness statement.

"Unfortunately, as a consequence of me bringing my Mirror Group claim, both myself and my wife have been subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation from Piers Morgan," he said.

Harry later alleged that Morgan's attacks were his attempt at getting the veteran "back down."