Piers Morgan slammed over reaction to Oprah interview

Piers Morgan (ITV)
Piers Morgan (ITV)

Piers Morgan has been slammed for shouting down racism and women's rights activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu in a TV discussion about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Oprah Winfrey interview.

The TV presenter was fronting a Good Morning Britain debate about the tell-all interview which aired in the US last night, in which the couple made the explosive revelation that an unnamed person in the Royal Family had questioned how dark their son Archie's skin would be.

Author and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu was part of a panel commenting on the accusations and branded Morgan "disgusting" for his reaction to the interview.

Asked for her reaction to the Royal racism claims, she said: "Let me give my reaction to you, Piers. OK? Every rant you have given in the last hour, you are such a liar and a disgrace."

Morgan reacted angrily, kicking off an on-air row between the pair as he claimed that Dr Shola "trashed" him every time she appeared on the show.

She said: "By all means let’s applaud the Queen when she does something right, but also lets talk about when she does something wrong."

UNSPECIFIED - UNSPECIFIED: In this handout image provided by Harpo Productions and released on March 5, 2021, Oprah Winfrey interviews Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on A CBS Primetime Special premiering on CBS on March 7, 2021. (Photo by Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese via Getty Images)
Prince Harry and Meghan sat down with Oprah Winfrey (Photo by Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese via Getty Images) (Handout via Getty Images)

Morgan interrupted her to defend the Queen, but she told him: "Are you out of your godforsaken mind?! Listen, you might learn something!"

He replied: "I think what you just said about the Queen is disgusting," and Dr Shola responded: "I think you are disgusting."

Many Good Morning Britain viewers said that they were pleased to see Morgan get a taste of his own interviewing style, and applauded Dr Shola for calling him out.

In a later panel on the show, TV star Trisha Goddard also held Morgan to account over his suggestion that the comments about Archie's skin colour might not have been racist.

Morgan claimed that "most families" might have a conversation about a new baby's skin colour and tried to say that it was "curiosity" rather than racism.

But Goddard told him: "Piers, why does it matter? Here's another curious thing, when I've got my hair natural people are curious to see what my hair feels like, so they'll come up behind me and run their dirty hands through my hair, it's 'only curiosity'.

"Why is everybody else such an expert about racism against Black people. I'm sorry Piers, you don't get to call out what is and isn't racism against Black people.

"You can call out all the other stuff you want, but leave the racism stuff to us, ok?"

She later told him: "I wish for you that one of your sons meets a beautiful Black woman and marries her and then you will understand."

In the Oprah Winfrey interview, Prince Harry refused to reveal which member of his family had made the remarks about his son's skin colour.

Morgan complained that they were "unsubstantiated allegations and the most serious ones with no names attached to them, which I think is cowardly.

"If you're going to make allegations like that, give us the names. You spraygunned everybody else by name, so give us the names about the racist, who you went to about your mental health who rejected you out of hand and said you weren't entitled to any help."

UNSPECIFIED - UNSPECIFIED: In this handout image provided by Harpo Productions and released on March 5, 2021, Oprah Winfrey interviews Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on A CBS Primetime Special premiering on CBS on March 7, 2021. (Photo by Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese via Getty Images)
The couple also said Meghan had been refused help with her mental health (Photo by Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese via Getty Images) (Handout via Getty Images)

Meghan also revealed that she had reached a point where she "just didn't want to be alive anymore", but said that she had been refused help with her mental health.

However, Morgan accused her and Harry of a lack of compassion by allowing the interview to air while Prince Philip is seriously ill in hospital.

He said: "It's so disloyal. What's compassionate about spraygunning the Royal Family as Prince Philip lies in hospital, where's the compassion for the Queen and Prince Philip right now?

Piers Morgan (ITV)
Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid hosted a discussion about the interview (ITV)

"They have no compassion, these two, other than for themselves. All they care about is their own misery and woe in their $11 million mansion in California.

"They've trashed his dad, they've trashed his brother, they've trashed his sister-in-law, they've trashed everything the Queen has worked so hard to maintain the monarchy, and we're supposed to believe they're compassionate?"

Questioning "what Prince Harry was thinking", he added: "I know you ditched your country Harry, you ditched us, and now you want to turn the world against us and our Royal Family, the thing your grandmother has worked so hard on for six decades, you want to just dismiss all that? Disgraceful."

Watch: Prince Harry and Meghan reveal Royal rift in interview

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