Piers Morgan | |
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Born | Piers Stefan O'Meara 30 March 1965 |
Education | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1985–present |
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Spouses | |
Children | 4 |
Relatives | Rebecca Loos (second cousin) |
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (/pɪərz/; né O'Meara, born 30 March 1965[1]) is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. He began his career in 1988 at the tabloid The Sun. In 1994, at the age of 29, he was appointed editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century.[2] From 1995, Morgan edited the Daily Mirror, but was fired in 2004.[3] He was the editorial director of First News from 2006 to 2007. In 2014, Morgan became the first editor-at-large of the MailOnline website's US operation.
As a television presenter, Morgan hosted the ITV talk show Piers Morgan's Life Stories (2009–2020), the CNN talk show Piers Morgan Live (2011–2014), and co-presented the ITV Breakfast programme Good Morning Britain (2015–2021) alongside Susanna Reid. He has been a judge on the television talent shows America's Got Talent (2006–2011) and Britain's Got Talent (2007–2010).[4][5][6] In 2008, Morgan won The Celebrity Apprentice US, appearing with future US president Donald Trump.[7][8] He was a presenter for TalkTV (now known as Talk), hosting the program Piers Morgan Uncensored from 2022 to 2024, before leaving the network and moving the show to YouTube.[9]
Morgan was the editor of the Daily Mirror during the period in which the paper was implicated in the phone hacking scandal. In 2011, Morgan denied having ever hacked a phone and stated that he had not, "to [his] knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone". The following year, he was criticised in the findings of the Leveson Inquiry by chair Brian Leveson, who stated that comments made in Morgan's testimony about phone hacking were "utterly unpersuasive" and "that he was aware that it was taking place in the press as a whole and that he was sufficiently unembarrassed by what was criminal behaviour that he was prepared to joke about it".[10] The judge in a 2023 court case against Mirror Group Newspapers found truthful evidence that Morgan knew about private phone hacking from a reporter, shared a method of phone hacking with a media professional while being questioned about a reporting scoop, and that Morgan played another's private phone message in the newsroom he had received from another tabloid editor.[11][12]
Morgan's outspoken views and controversial comments on Good Morning Britain have led Ofcom to adjudicate on multiple occasions.[16] In March 2021, Morgan left the programme with immediate effect, following his criticism of the Oprah with Meghan and Harry interview.[17][18] Ofcom received over 57,000 complaints from viewers,[19] including a complaint from Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, herself;[20] Morgan was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing by Ofcom.[21]
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