Good Morning Britain has entertained and informed early risers across the UK for more than a decade now.
Yet despite its popularity, ITV’s breakfast show hasn’t been without its controversies.
In fact, it’s reported to be the most complained-about TV show between 2021 and 2024.
The show supposedly recorded an eye-watering 91,890 complaints in that period.
However, more astonishingly, The Mail Online reports that more than half of these complaints came from just one episode.
The episode in question saw former host Piers Morgan criticise Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, over an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
During this two-hour interview, Harry and Meghan made several allegations about the behaviour of the Royal Family, which Morgan disagreed with.
Most notably, Morgan said he ‘didn’t believe a word’ the Duchess had told Oprah about feeling suicidal, prompting 57,121 people to complain about his remarks.
While Morgan conceded the next day that it was ‘not for [him] to question if [Meghan] felt suicidal,’ he was later confronted by co-host Alex Beresford and stormed off set.
Morgan would then quit the show with an ITV spokesperson saying: ‘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.’
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The former Mirror editor would later release his own statement from outside his London home, where he said his split from ITV was amicable and that he stood by his comments.
‘I had a good chat with ITV and we agreed to disagree,’ he said [via the BBC]. ‘I believe in freedom of speech, I believe in the right to be allowed to have an opinion. If people want to believe Meghan Markle, that’s entirely their right.
‘I don’t believe almost anything that comes out of her mouth, and I think the damage she’s done to the British monarchy and to the Queen at a time when Prince Philip is lying in hospital is enormous and frankly contemptible.
‘If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it.’
Morgan was ultimately cleared by Ofcom of breaching broadcasting rules, with the watchdog saying that attempts to restrict his views were ‘chilling’; however, they criticised his ‘apparent disregard’ for the subject of suicide.
Following this, Morgan said he was ‘delighted’ with the ruling, calling it a ‘resounding victory for free speech’.
Love Island was the second most complained-about TV show with 66,252 complaints recorded over the same four-year period.
Metro has reached out to Ofcom for comment.
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