BREAKING NEWS: Earl Spencer humiliated as he’s forced to issue grovelling apology to Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan has said he will continue with legal action against Earl Spencer despite the apology.
The Earl has been forced to apologise (Image: Getty)
Charles, Earl Spencer issued a formal apology to Piers Morgan after confirming that he made a mistake in his bombshell new book about his late sister, Diana, Princess of Wales. The Earl’s controversial new book, Swan Song, has prompted a war of words with Buckingham Palace after the author claimed the King said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after she died and he sounded “giddily elated” in the wake of the crash.
The Earl also took aim at Mr Morgan and wrote that the journalist was working for the Daily Mirror when it published intrusive photographs of her in the gym in 1993. But Mr Morgan didn’t join the paper until two years later.
A spokesperson for Earl Spencer said that his book had recorded his own assumption that Mr Morgan’s irritable reaction to being asked not to attend Diana’s funeral stemmed from guilt over the gym photographs, believing him to have been the editor at the time that they were published.
But the statement said: “As an historian, accuracy is important to Earl Spencer. He therefore wishes to clarify that his assumption was incorrect. Earl Spencer apologises to Mr Morgan for this error.”
Mr Morgan hit out at Spencer during the latest episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube programme, he said: “I can exclusively reveal on Uncensored that Earl Spencer’s book contains fabricated inaccuracies which will strike to the heart of his credibility.”
In the book, the Earl describes Mr Morgan as being “snarled with annoyance” when he rang him to disinvite him from his sister’s funeral, adding he was the only one of the tabloid editors “who sounded surly”.
The book reads: “I assumed Morgan must be feeling particular guilt because, four years earlier, he and his Sunday Mirror counterpart had published photographs taken with hidden cameras by a gym owner.”
Responding, the broadcast says: “Well, this is all pretty extraordinary stuff, isn’t it? And very damning, particularly about me.
“I come across in the most despicable manner imaginable. There’s just one problem. It’s all bullshit and very, very easy bullshit for me to prove it.”
Piers Morgan has spoke out about an incorrect assumption in the book (Image: GETTY)
Mr Morgan explained that the photographs were published by the Sunday Mirror on November 7, 1993, when he was doing a showbiz column for the Sun.
He explained that he joined the Daily Mirror two years later, in October 1995, and worked as the paper’s editor until 2004.
The journalist added that he regularly had lunch with Diana and her eldest son, Prince William, at Kensington Palace and would run stories past her over the phone.
He accused the earl of “using the Harry and Meghan playbook” of “putting their truth before the truth”, continuing: “I expect there will be many more examples of brazen falsity after what I’ve uncovered… In the meantime, Earl Spencer, you’ll be hearing, and your publishers, from my lawyers.
“Because I would like the complete lie that you’ve published about me, and those photographs, to be removed from your book. And I would like a donation to be made to the King’s Trust for the damage that you’ve caused with your lie.”
However, Mr Morgan posted on X on Tuesday that the apology will not prevent him from pursuing legal action.
“Earl Spencer has apologised to me for his defamatory lies published in his new book, Swan Song, published today. But I am pursuing legal action against him and his publisher Penguin to have the lies removed, and damages paid to the King’s Trust.”
In an interview with ITV News, Mr Morgan said: “I’m spitting blood about this. “I mean, he’s made an egregious, defamatory series of claims about me, which had nothing to do with me.
“And all right, He’s apologised, he’s admitted that he was wrong, but that’s not enough, I’m sorry.”This book is out there now. It’s going to sell a lot of copies. He’s going to make millions and millions of pounds around the world hawking his story about his sister, having vowed never to do that.
“We are sending a legal letter today. I’ve instructed Shillings, the legal firm, to send a legal letter to him and to his publishers, Penguin, demanding they withdraw these now admitted false claims in the book about me.
“And you know, honestly, I may not be the only one because, you know, if he’s done this to me, it was only after I checked the entries on me. Who else has he done this to?
“But I don’t think this book should be allowed to continue being out there to sell it contains an admitted defamatory lie.”
