Piers Morgan (left) is not a fan of Meghan Markle. Photos / ITV, CBS
Piers Morgan (left) is not a fan of Meghan Markle. Photos / ITV, CBS
When Piers Morgan took a little-known actress to his local pub in 2016, he thought it was going to be the start of a mutual love-in with a woman who had declared herself a “big fan” of his.
Instead, seven years on, Morgan is locked in a never-ending feudwith his former drinking companion Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the man she met later that same night.
Their loathing of each other is so all-consuming that Morgan walked out of his last job on mainstream television because of it, and the Duke of Sussex has publicly called for Scotland Yard to launch a fresh investigation into Morgan’s past activities.
The fact that a judge has now said there is “compelling evidence” that Morgan “knew very well” about phone hacking at the Daily Mirror when he was editor has given the Duke an enormous stick with which to beat him.
This is clearly a fight that has many rounds still to go.
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Piers Morgan was one of Meghan and Harry's biggest supporters in the UK when the relationship first became public knowledge. Photo / AP
Ironically, Morgan was Markle’s biggest cheerleader in the UK when her relationship with Harry first became public knowledge.
He had started watching her TV series, Suits, and followed her on Twitter. Markle followed him back in September 2015 and sent him a direct message saying: “Well hello there - thanks for the follow. Big fan of yours!”
Morgan had been a judge on America’s Got Talent for five years and was better known, even in the US, than Markle.
He began promoting her on social media, sharing links to a “brilliant” article she had written about her bi-racial heritage and tweeting that she had emailed him previews of new Suits episodes, declaring himself a superfan.
Then, in June 2016, came their face-to-face meeting in the Scarsdale Tavern in Kensington. Over a dirty martini, Markle asked for career advice and an invitation to appear on Good Morning Britain, Morgan said. Afterwards she headed to a private members’ club, where Morgan believes she met Harry for the first time.
For the next few months Morgan wrote about the “ambitious, hard-working and talented actress” who was “perfect princess material”.
‘Fame-obsessed social climber’
The tone shifted, however, in November 2017, when Prince Harry and Meghan announced their engagement. Morgan wrote a newspaper column in which he revealed that Meghan had never contacted him after their pub drink (he later accused her of ghosting him) but put the blame at Prince Harry’s door.
He wrote: “I’m guessing the words ‘Hey darling, fancy going to the pub with my ex-tabloid newspaper editor mate Piers?’ were never going to go down very well with His Royal Highness.”
After the couple’s wedding in May 2018, Morgan changed his mind about the Duchess. He accused her of scripting her wedding and putting in an Oscar-worthy performance while also warning her to keep her opinions to herself.
He claimed she was also a fame-obsessed, ruthless social climber who ditched anyone she outgrew, whether family, friends or a husband.
Morgan said he “wouldn’t believe Meghan Markle if she gave me a weather report”. On Good Morning Britain, weatherman Alex Beresford suggested to Morgan that his trashing of Meghan was because “she cut you off”. Morgan stormed off set, never to return.
Piers Morgan walks off during live filming of Good Morning Britain after conflict over his comments on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Oprah interview.
When Harry launched legal proceedings against the Mirror Group Newspapers over alleged phone hacking, he said in his witness statement: “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)... makes me feel physically sick.”
Worse still for Morgan, Omid Scobie, author of the Sussex-supporting book Finding Freedom, had done work experience at the Mirror in 2002 and told the court he overheard Morgan being told that a story about Kylie Minogue had come from her voicemails. The judge found him to be “a straightforward and reliable witness”.
Harry, meanwhile, said the judgment showed that “senior executives, and editors, such as Piers Morgan, clearly knew about or were involved in these illegal activities” and called on the Metropolitan Police to “do their duty... and investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law”.
Morgan said these were allegations “spewed out by old foes with an axe to grind”. Scobie, he said, was a “deluded fantasist” while Harry “wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California-tanned face”.
