Tuesday, the world was stunned to discover that international conservative talking head Piers Morgan had vacated his hosting position on Good Morning Britain. Now it’s being reported that Meghan Markle was one of the thousands of viewers who made a formal complaint to British broadcaster ITV regarding his disparaging comments about her.
Tuesday, ITV confirmed that Morgan would be leaving the popular daytime after he voiced doubts about claims that Markle had suicidal thoughts and suffered through a mental health breakdown due to the treatment she received from the British press.
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“Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain,” the network said on Tuesday. “ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add.”
But according to CNN, “Meghan’s complaint to ITV concerned the impact Morgan’s comments could have on others and how it could degrade the seriousness of mental health issues,” they also noted that, “the complaint did not relate to the personal nature of Morgan’s attacks.”
Following Monday’s broadcast where Morgan said he didn’t believe Markle ever suffered from suicide ideation, UK media regulator Ofcom reported that it had received over 41,000 complaints about the segment and in response launched an investigation under its “harm and offence rules.”
However, Wednesday, Morgan doubled down on his controversial statements, insisting that he “still” does not believe the Duchess.
“I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t [believe her],” he tweeted. “If you did, OK. Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on. Thanks for all the love, and hate. I’m off to spend more time with my opinions.”
A right to privacy
As we previously reported, Tuesday, in a new clip released from Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special, Winfrey inquired if Markle ever felt like she needed to accept the loss of privacy as “part of the deal” when she became a royal.
In response, the expecting mother argued that “everyone has a basic right to privacy,” noting, “I think life is about being able to share stories you’re comfortable with.”
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“Two things here. I think everyone has a basic right to privacy, basic. We’re not talking about anything that anybody else wouldn’t expect,” she continued in the previously unseen clip published by OprahMag.com.
“So if you’re at work and you have a photograph of your child on your desk and your co-worker says ‘oh my gosh, your kids so cute, that’s fantastic… can I see your phone so I can see all your pictures of your child?’. You go, ‘no, this is the picture I’m comfortable sharing with you.'”
Markle insisted that lines needed to be drawn.
“And then if they double down and say, ‘no but you already showed me that one so you’ve got to show me everything, so I’m going to hire someone to sit in front of your house or hide in the bushes and take pictures into your back yard because you’ve lost your right to privacy because you shared one image with me,” she said.
She noted the flawed logic some have.
“That’s sort of the flawed argument and operating mechanism that they’re confusing people to think,” she pointed out.
“There’s no one on Instagram and social media who would say that because they shared one picture you are entitled to my whole camera roll,” she concluded. “No one would want that, so it’s about boundaries and respect – they’ve created a false narrative, I’ve never talked about privacy, I think that’s just a basic understanding.”
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