Piers Morgan has hit back at the suggestion he has a “personal vendetta” against Meghan Markle.
The former Good Morning Britain anchor left the ITV daytime show last month, after his comments casting doubt on the Duchess of Sussex’ claims during her interview with Oprah Winfrey sparked more than 57,000 Ofcom complaints, the most the TV watchdog had ever received.
On his final day at GMB, the divisive presenter stormed off set when co-star Alex Beresford called him out for his treatment of the Duchess on air.
Piers has reflected on the walk-off in his first TV interview since his GMB exit, with the Tucker Carlson Today programme on the Fox Nation streaming service.
Dismissing Alex’s credentials, Piers told the host: “He is the stand in weather guy, he’s not a journalist, he’s someone I’ve helped in his career like he has asked me to.
“He sent me a private message in which he expressed some concern about what he felt I wasn’t really understanding about where Meghan Markle was coming from as a biracial woman.
“He is himself a biracial man so he wanted to explain so I said come on air, let’s have the conversation.”
Piers continued: “But the moment he came on air, he came with a pretty premeditated attack on me on a pretty personal level and frankly I just wasn’t going to have it.
“I walked off... I was quite angry in the moment, he claimed that I have a personal vendetta against Meghan Markle, which I don’t.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Alex Beresford’s representatives for comment.
Since his confrontation with Piers last month, Alex said he has been “forced to step away” from social media, after being subjected to “relentless” racist abuse.
Alex isn’t the only one to suggest that Piers’ repeated takedowns of Meghan Markle have a personal edge to them, though.
Last year, GMB guest Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu accused Piers of having a “personal vendetta” against Meghan, stating on air: “You are a man, privileged to have power and influence and you are using your platform so irresponsibly to spout out this personal vendetta with nasty and vile comments knowing fully well that your words are containing bigotry, misogyny, sexism and racism.
“You don’t take responsibility for how you have contributed to the so-called royal crisis.”
More recently, his co-anchor Susanna Reid accused Piers of being “obsessed” with Meghan and Prince Harry, telling him he had “such a negative filter” when it came to the Sussexes.
Elsewhere in his Tucker Carlson interview, which lasted over an hour, Piers claimed he has received “droves” of support from the British public since his GMB departure.
“Old, young, Black, white, it didn’t matter. They’ve been coming up to me in their droves all day every day,” he insisted. “The British people have seen through this.”