Piers Morgan 'delighted' by Ofcom verdict as he
tells Harry and Meghan to 'put up or shut up'
The former breakfast TV presenter challenges the Duke
and Duchess of Sussex to consider whether it is fair to "spray gun the
British royal family with lurid allegations".
By Chris
Robertson, arts and entertainment reporter, and Andy Hayes, news reporter
Wednesday 1
September 2021 22:40, UK
Piers
Morgan has challenged the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to "put up or shut
up" as he celebrated Ofcom's decision not to sanction Good Morning Britain
over controversial comments he made on the show.
Speaking to
reporters after the media regulator decided the programme had not been in
breach of the broadcasting code, he also suggested Prince Harry and Meghan
should give up their royal titles and stop "spray gunning" the Royal
Family with "lurid allegations".
Morgan lost
his job on the ITV breakfast show after questioning some of the claims the
couple made during their interview with Oprah Winfrey, broadcast in March.
Talking
before leaving for an awards show, he said: "Today, Ofcom has emphatically
endorsed my right to not believe what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were
saying.
"And
I'm delighted that they've actually recognised what I said five months ago,
which is actually, in a democracy, we have a thing called free speech and
freedom of expression and you're allowed to have an opinion even if Meghan and
Harry in their California mansion don't like it."
Expanding
on his theme, he suggested the ruling should cause Harry and Meghan to look
back at what was said.
"The
Duke and Duchess of Sussex should reflect on this, and they should work out
whether it is fair of them to spray gun the British royal family with lurid
allegations without producing a shred of evidence," he said.
"Five
months later there is no evidence for any of their allegations. I'm not saying
they didn't happen, I'm just saying 'put up or shut up'."
Although
Ofcom said Morgan's statements about suicide and mental health had the
potential to be highly offensive, it concluded that the programme
"contained sufficient challenge to provide adequate protection and context
to viewers".
When
challenged about mental health, Morgan told reporters: "What thought have
they (Harry and Meghan) given to the mental health of the Queen, a 95-year-old
woman who lost her husband of seven decades this year, who went into hospital -
Prince Philip - just before they went on television in America and trashed the
Royal Family."
'A good day
for free speech' - Piers Morgan
He added:
"Everywhere I've gone in the last five months I've had universal support
from the British public, who are incensed by the damage that they're doing to
the Royal Family."
Morgan said
he'd had "some very interesting" job offers and will be making a
decision "quite soon", describing himself as a "valuable
commodity".
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