BBC Breakfast host Dan Walker has hit back at Susanna Reid, after the Good Morning Britain presenter referenced him in a new column about “cattiness” among men in the TV industry.
On Thursday, Susanna published a column for the Daily Mail titled “It’s not women who are catty colleagues on TV – it’s men”, in which she addressed storylines in the new Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.
In the column, she wrote: “In my experience, there is more rivalry between male counterparts.
“Take ITV’s Piers Morgan and Dan Walker, his BBC Breakfast double. The way they snipe at each other on Twitter makes me shudder. I would never speak about a colleague like that.”
Clearly unimpressed with being name-checked in the column, Dan swiftly replied on Twitter, pointing out with his ongoing beef with Piers Morgan was usually fairly one-sided.
“Interesting,” Dan wrote. “With the greatest respect… the insults that make you ‘shudder’ only really come one way. I enjoy the friendly competition with your programme. It keeps us all on our toes and normally stays within the bounds of gentle fun.
“I understand that columns for this newspaper need to be provocative but I humbly suggest you talk to @louiseminchin @BBCNaga @stephbreakfast @carolkirkwood @mikebreakfast @sallynugent - or anyone I work with - before suggesting I ever put colleagues down or am not supportive.”
Susanna soon replied: “I didn’t for a moment suggest this. My reference to you was solely in relation to how you and Piers speak to each other online.”
She also retweeted a comment from one fan who suggested that if Dan and Piers were two women, their Twitter exchanges would be viewed as “bitchy” rather than “banter”.
A little later, Dan shared an additional tweet, claiming he “misread Susanna’s intentions” with his first posts.
Dan and Piers have gone toe-to-toe on social media on more than one occasion, usually to do with the ratings battle between their shows, BBC Breakfast and Good Morning Britain.
More recently, Piers branded his rival a “snivelling sycophant” as they clashed over the media’s treatment of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
