Piers Morgan slammed by Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and Trisha Goddard over Royal Family racism claims
Piers Morgan has been criticised for shouting down racism and women's rights activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu in a TV discussion about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The presenter was fronting a Good Morning Britain debate about the tell-all interview, in which the couple made the explosive revelation that an unnamed person in the Royal Family had questioned how dark their son Archie's skin would be.
Author and activist Dr Shola, who was part of a panel commenting on the accusations, branded Morgan "disgusting" for his reaction to the interview, which aired in the US last night.
‘You want to deny the Royal Family has any racist undertones or actions simply because you’re in love with the Queen?’
‘What a load of race-baiting nonsense.’
The debate gets very heated between @piersmorgan and @SholaMos1. pic.twitter.com/6XaH6RrDlV— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 8, 2021
Asked for her reaction to the royal racism claims, she said: "Let me give my reaction to you, Piers. OK? Every rant you have given in the last hour, you are such a liar and a disgrace."
Morgan reacted angrily, kicking off an on-air row between the pair as he claimed that Dr Shola "trashed" him every time she appeared on the show.
Read more: 12 talking points from Oprah's royal interview
She said: "By all means let’s applaud the Queen when she does something right, but also let's talk about when she does something wrong."
Morgan interrupted her to defend the Queen, but she told him: "Are you out of your godforsaken mind?! Listen, you might learn something!"
He replied: "I think what you just said about the Queen is disgusting," and Dr Shola responded: "I think you are disgusting."
Read more: Royal commentators hoaxed into reacting to interview
Many viewers said they were pleased to see Morgan get a taste of his own interviewing style, and applauded Dr Shola for calling him out.
Dr Shola putting Piers Morgan in his place is TV gold 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣#GMB
— Laurie Belle (@belle_laurie) March 8, 2021
Piers Morgan hates it when he gets the Piers Morgan treatment on his own show. He met his match today in Dr Shola #gmb
— Tom Roberts (@Tomsmith92) March 8, 2021
Dr Shola is the voice we need to drag Piers this morning #gmb
— 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲 (@andresaidwhat) March 8, 2021
Dr Shola had Piers Morgan in a headlock #gmb
— eemarcus 🇯🇲 (@_Elijahmm) March 8, 2021
In a later panel on the show, TV star Trisha Goddard also held Morgan to account over his suggestion that the comments about Archie's skin colour might not have been racist.
Morgan said "most families" might have a conversation about a new baby's skin colour and tried to say the comments were "curiosity" rather than racism.
But Goddard told him: "Piers, why does it matter? Here's another curious thing, when I've got my hair natural people are curious to see what my hair feels like, so they'll come up behind me and run their dirty hands through my hair, it's 'only curiosity'.
.@TrishaGoddard says @piersmorgan can call out whatever he wants but he doesn’t get to say what ‘is and isn’t racism against black people.'
He responds he's calling out Meghan's 'incendiary charge of racism against the Royal Family'.
Watch GMB👉https://t.co/6iQ6ebeOEQ pic.twitter.com/LhIeVrcKwx— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) March 8, 2021
"Why is everybody else such an expert about racism against Black people. I'm sorry Piers, you don't get to call out what is and isn't racism against Black people.
"You can call out all the other stuff you want, but leave the racism stuff to us, OK?"
She later told him: "I wish for you that one of your sons meets a beautiful Black woman and marries her and then you will understand."
I didn’t know I needed to see Trisha Goddard take down Piers Morgan on live TV but it was the start to my day I needed #goodmorningbritain
— B (@TweetsByBilal) March 8, 2021
Trisha Goddard and Dr Shola serving up Piers Morgan and it's not even 9:30am? Happy #InternationalWomensDay indeed.
— Ravi Parmar (@Parmar1993) March 8, 2021
In the Oprah Winfrey interview, Prince Harry refused to reveal which member of his family had made the remarks about his son's skin colour. Meghan also revealed that she had reached a point where she "just didn't want to be alive any more", and that she had been refused help with her mental health.
Morgan complained that the couple's claims were "unsubstantiated allegations and the most serious ones with no names attached to them, which I think is cowardly.
"If you're going to make allegations like that, give us the names. You spray-gunned everybody else by name, so give us the names about the racist, who you went to about your mental health who rejected you out of hand and said you weren't entitled to any help."
Morgan also accused the couple of a lack of compassion by allowing the interview to air while Prince Philip is seriously ill in hospital.
He said: "It's so disloyal. What's compassionate about spray-gunning the Royal Family as Prince Philip lies in hospital, where's the compassion for the Queen and Prince Philip right now?
"They have no compassion, these two, other than for themselves. All they care about is their own misery and woe in their $11 million mansion in California.
"They've trashed his dad, they've trashed his brother, they've trashed his sister-in-law, they've trashed everything the Queen has worked so hard to maintain the monarchy, and we're supposed to believe they're compassionate?"
Questioning "what Prince Harry was thinking", he added: "I know you ditched your country, Harry, you ditched us, and now you want to turn the world against us and our Royal Family, the thing your grandmother has worked so hard on for six decades, you want to just dismiss all that? Disgraceful."
Watch: Prince Harry and Meghan reveal royal rift in interview