Piers Morgan's claims of being 'traumatised' ring hollow as he criticises Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary
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All publicity is good publicity and with Piers Morgan tweeting a Netflix trailer of Harry and Meghan’s documentary saying he is ‘traumatised’… well, he’s adding to the hype surrounding the December 8 release.
“Princess Pinocchio & Prince Hypocrite use my voice to flog their ghastly new series,” read Piers Morgan’s Twitter post on Monday December 5. “I’m traumatised by this exploitation.”
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Hide AdIt’s a funny world inside Piers Morgan’s mind. Having your voice used in a documentary when you were unaware it was going to be present must be surreal and, if taken massively out of context, verging on liable. Yet, this isn’t the case for the former GMB presenter.
Morgan’s voice is used exactly in keeping with the correct context. In the trailer, he is heard to say, “She’s becoming a royal rock star”, in reference to Meghan Markle becoming engaged to Prince Harry. It perfectly illustrates the way the British media can hype someone up only to later want to bring them down.
Piers has set himself up as the voice against Harry and Meghan’s new life away from royal duty. In keeping with the self-made role he has to denounce their actions at - what seems like - every available opportunity. The former editor of the now defunct News of the World, he knows how to spin a yarn.
There’s never been a stronger example in modern times of a media personality going from one extreme to the other with a particular celebrity. Piers famously spoke of how he met Meghan just a short time before she met Prince Harry in July 2016.
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Hide AdSpeaking to The Times, Morgan said that Markle messaged him after he followed her on Twitter after watching some episodes of the TV show she used to star in, Suits.
“One day, I was bored at home – this was 2015 – and I followed four of the stars of Suits on Twitter. Three of the guys and Meghan Markle… She direct-messaged me five minutes after I followed her saying, ‘Oh my God, thanks for the follow. I’m such a big fan!’ which is quite ironic given the way things have played out,” he said.
Morgan added: “She’d watched me on CNN, liked me, blah-blah-blah, whatever. Anyway, I started exchanging messages with her and a guy called Rick Hoffman, who plays Louis Litt in Suits. The three of us messaged away, sending me early preview episodes, emailing. He came on Good Morning Britain; we sent the pictures to Meghan. All very light-hearted.”
The former Good Morning Britain star then said that she asked to meet up with Morgan when she came to England in 2016.
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Hide Ad“That came from her,” he continued, stating: “I said, ‘Why don’t you come and have a pint in my local, the Scarsdale?’ She came down, we had a couple of hours, a great laugh, thought she was really nice. Great fun. She said she was getting a few calls from guys, received a lot of texts, people being quite persistent, blah-blah-blah… I put her in a cab, she went to some dinner in Mayfair at 5 Hertford Street, and I never heard from her again.
“It turned out she’d met Harry that night,” Morgan told the outlet, explaining that both Markle and Hoffman “disappeared”.
“I just thought, the pair of them, such poor manners,” he said.
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Hide AdMorgan stepped away from GMB after attracting widespread criticism for comments he made about Markle following her tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The broadcaster repeatedly claimed that he “didn’t believe a word” she said about having suicidal thoughts during her time as a senior royal.
Piers has made some incredible documentaries himself, and many are shown on Netflix. He should focus on creating more of those hard-hitting films.
There’s a lesson here for Piers. Whether he recognises what it is and then decides to change how he communicates is another thing.