BREAKING NEWS: Piers Morgan savages Earl Spencer with one word in explosive GMB rant
The broadcaster isn’t backing down as he continues to pursue legal action against Earl Spencer and his publisher, Penguin.
Piers Morgan fired back at ‘pipsqueak’ Earl Spencer over his bombshell memoir (Image: Getty)
Piers Morgan is determined to get Earl Spencer’s bombshell memoir, Swan Song, removed from shelves. Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday (23 September), the broadcaster, who is taking legal action against Spencer and his publisher, Penguin, told Ed Balls and Susanna Reid that he’s not backing down.
Asked what he’ll do if the publisher and Earl Spencer refuse to pull the book, Morgan told Reid: “It’s a sort of fascinating situation because he’s now admitted immediately, with a public apology to me, that what he wrote about me in the book is completely untrue. And it’s demonstrably untrue.”
“This is not a trifling little mistake he’s made,” Morgan continued, referencing Spencer’s claims that the journalist had been Editor of The Daily Mirror in 1993, when highly intrusive images of Princess Diana were published. “He’s directly accused me, in this book, of committing the most egregious invasion of royal privacy in history, so I think I’m entitled to feel a little bit miffed about it.”
Confirming that he and his team had written to Spencer and Penguin to point out that “this lie remains in the book,” Morgan said their position was straightforward: “Every single copy that is now sold with that defamatory lie in it will exacerbate the damage that it’s caused.” He added that he would not accept any of the damages himself, and clarified that these would be donated to The King’s Trust.
Morgan said the Royal Family were ‘spitting blood’ over the book (Image: Getty)
“What I can say is that I know as an absolute fact that the Royal Family are spitting blood. They are furious about this, and they’re particularly furious about the clearly, quite deliberate attempt to destroy King Charles’ reputation,” Morgan remarked, before calling Spencer a “pipsqueak” for going after the monarch.
Disputing Spencer’s claims that he himself was “surly” after being told he could not attend Diana’s funeral, Morgan said it was “absolute nonsense” that he was rude to the Earl. “I can categorically say that is a bull-faced lie. I was very respectful to Earl Spencer,” he declared, noting that he’d even extended his condolences to the Spencer family. Morgan quipped that he knew this exchange had happened that way because he’d put it in his own best-selling book, The Insider.
In another slight to the Earl, Morgan fumed that it was “hypocritical” that Spencer should have such a negative view of tabloid editors, “given that he’s sold his book to a tabloid”.
“I didn’t expect or demand to be at Diana’s funeral. I did know her well. In the last two years of her life, in particular, I’d been to Kensington Palace, having lunch with her and Prince William when he was 13, in which she was absolutely candid with me and told me about everything going on in her life. All the scandals she’d been involved in, her thoughts on Prince Charles and the monarchy and everything. It was a fascinating lunch. Again, I put the details of that lunch into my book so people can go and read that.”
Morgan said he’d had a good relationship with Princess Diana before her de@th (Image: Getty)
Morgan concluded, “Earl Spencer, from my understanding, had a pretty rocky relationship with Diana for many, many years towards the end of her life. They weren’t that close. For him to now declare himself the great historian, putting the record straight about her life, having declared on camera that he would never, ever sell her out, now he’s gone back on his own word. He’s a shameless hypocrite.”
Morgan’s appearance on GMB came less than 24 hours after he received a public apology from Spencer. Acknowledging that the Earl had made an error in his book by falsely assuming he was Editor of The Daily Mirror in 1993, a spokesperson said: “Earl Spencer’s account of his conversation with Piers Morgan is accurate. Morgan was surly and annoyed when Earl Spencer called personally to tell him that he was not welcome at his sister’s funeral.
“The book then records Earl Spencer’s assumption that Mr Morgan’s response was because he was editor of the Daily Mirror when the Mirror Group had published highly intrusive photographs of Princess Diana at the gym.
“The photographs were published by the Sunday Mirror on 7 November 1993. Mr Morgan has pointed out that he did not join the Daily Mirror until October 1995.
“As a 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.”
Following the public apology, however, Morgan confirmed that he would continue to pursue legal action against Spencer and his publishers at Penguin. “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,” the YouTube star tweeted on Tuesday.
Morgan later told the BBC that he wanted to have the “offending pages” removed from Swan Song altogether, “And if that means they pulp the first edition, so be it”.
