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PIERS OUT
Piers Morgan dramatically QUITS Good Morning Britain after storming off over Meghan Markle
PIERS Morgan has tonight QUIT Good Morning Britain after receiving 41,000 complaints for his comments on Meghan Markle’s Oprah interview.
The firebrand TV host, who has been on the ITV show since 2015, earlier stormed off after becoming engaged in a row with co-star Alex Beresford.
🔵 Follow our Piers Morgan live blog for the latest on his GMB exit...
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Morgan, 55, has repeatedly made dismissive comments about Meghan's claims she was "suicidal" and suffered issues with her mental health while a Royal.
The 39-year-old Duchess told Oprah Winfrey she felt like she "didn't want to be alive anymore" in her bombshell interview on Sunday.
But on Monday's Good Morning Britain, Morgan said he "didn't believe a word" of it.
And when challenged over his comments by Beresford today, the controversial TV figurehead stormed off set.
ITV later said he was "being spoken to" by bosses - but it was tonight revealed he had dramatically quit.
ITV said in a statement: "Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain.
"ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add."
The TV host tweeted a cryptic ticking clock just moments before the announcement was made.
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Morgan's son Spencer was quick to defend his dad, tweeting: "Team Piers. Always, forever."
And former footballer and broadcaster Gary Lineker said: "Whether it’s a football manager, a television presenter or any profession for that matter, it’s always sad when someone loses their job.
"Piers Morgan is excellent at what he does and I’m sure he’ll be back on the telly soon."
The TV host tweeted a cryptic ticking clock just moments before the announcement was made.
Rival Dan Walker wrote: "If you’d like to come on the UK’s number 1 breakfast show to talk about it... we could make some space for you in the morning," followed by a thumbs up emoji.
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The dramatic move comes less than an hour after Ofcom announced it was launching a probe into his Meghan remarks.
The show received 41,000 complaints about his comments - the most Ofcom complaints regarding one show in a decade.
His remarks were also criticised by mental health charity Mind.
And earlier today a petition to sack Morgan from GMB had amassed more than 88,000 signatures.
The journalist appeared unconcerned by the public’s calls for his resignation yesterday.
He said: “Lots of people on here want me fired for expressing my opinion on the Pinocchio Princess.
“If you want to join them, there are various petitions still doing the rounds from the last few times you've all tried, and failed, to have me fired for saying what I think.”
Morgan dramatically walked off the GMB set earlier after tensions flared between him and Alex.
Alex spoke calmly about his view on the royals' bombshell Oprah interview, and criticised Morgan for his coverage on the breakfast show yesterday.
The weather presenter defended the couple, saying: "I understand you've got a personal relationship with Meghan Markle, or had one, and she cut you off.
"She's entitled to cut you off if she wants to. Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I don't think she has but yet you continue to trash her."
But Morgan refused to listen, eventually snapping and saying: "I'm not having this" as he left the set.
He returned to the set almost 20 minutes later, where he slammed Alex for "launching a personal derogatory attack" on someone that he works with.
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Morgan began hosting the show alongside Susanna Reid in October 2015 and is well-known for his brash interview style.
His hard questioning of MPs during the Covid pandemic saw ministers avoid the popular morning show.
Susanna recently lifted the lid about working with Morgan.
She told the Times: "Piers Morgan is like sitting next to a pincushion. We do fight like Punch and Judy, verbally.
"We’re sparring all the time. You say he takes up more of the oxygen, but I use my chunk of time, I hope, very wisely."
Susanna also admitted that she used to struggle with the social-media abuse she received from trolls who Piers had blocked.
And it was no secret in the early days of working with Morgan, Susanna would sometimes get home and burst into tears.
“I used to get a lot of targeted abuse because someone didn’t like what the person sitting next to me said,” she said.
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Before his dramatic resignation tonight, ITV confirmed Morgan had spoken to chiefs at the broadcaster over the comments.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: "I completely believe what she [Meghan] said, that the most important thing with mental health that ITV does and is totally committed to, is that we support, we get people to speak up, we listen, we say everyone has to listen and everyone has to believe because that’s how you get people to speak up. So we are very committed to that.
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"We work with Mind and we work with CALM and we work with the whole range of health charities, and we will continue to do so.
"I haven’t spoken to Piers myself, but I know Kevin Lygo is speaking to him on a regular basis and has done so the last couple of days."
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Piers Morgan storms off GMB set after Alex Beresford blasts him over Meghan Markle interview
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