Piers Morgan slams Prince Harry for comparing Meghan with Diana after legal suit against tabloid: 'She's not in the same league'
In his latest piece on the royal family, journalist Piers Morgan did not hold back as he went after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for suing the Mail on Sunday after they ran a personal letter the Duchess of Sussex had written to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
Morgan begins the op-ed, published in the Daily Mail on Wednesday, October 2, by saying that he planned on originally praising the royal couple for their impeccable Africa trip, but that was before they sued the publication. He went onto write that he was not mad at the Duke and the Duchess for suing the paper but instead had an issue with the statement put out by Harry after the filing of the lawsuit.
"It is honestly one of the most extraordinary rants I've ever read from anyone in the Royal Family, and one of the most inexplicable," Morgan wrote.
He added: "Why would they do this right when they have enjoyed a week of universal acclaim? Why declare war on the press who've just spent seven days saying great things about them? Why petrol-bomb glowingly positive end-of-tour reports with a furnace of negative fury? Not for the first time, I don't understand what the hell Harry and Meghan are thinking."
In the statement, Prince Harry said in part: "Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences – a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy, and while raising our newborn son. There is a human cost to the this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been."
Morgan called the statement "hysterically over-the-top," adding that a younger Harry, who was "the courageous soldier and fun-loving party boy", would not have stated such "sanctimonious guff" and that the statement was proof that "he's been Meghan-ed."
Prince Harry further added in the statement: "My deepest fear is history repeating itself. I've seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces."
Morgan disagreed with Harry's comparison, as according to him, Meghan is "not in the same league as Diana in terms of fame."
Having stated that, he added that while he sympathized with the 35-year-old prince who lost his mother at the age of 12, "let's be very clear - the press didn't kill Diana, a speeding drunk-driver killed Diana. And if she hadn't recklessly abandoned her usual royal protection officers and drivers, she'd probably still be alive today."
He also defended Meghan's father, who he said deserves "freedom of speech."
"Rather than going to war with the press in this absurd manner, Harry should clamber down off his hysterical hothead high horse and repair the real running sore causing Meghan's distress – by making peace with her father," he concluded.