Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has filed a formal complaint to ITV about Piers Morgan’s statements regarding her and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah. This news comes in the wake of Piers Morgan resigning Tuesday from his role as a host on ITV’s Good Morning Britain show.
According to CNN, “Meghan’s complaint to ITV concerned the impact Morgan’s comments could have on others and how it could degrade the seriousness of mental health issues. The complaint did not relate to the personal nature of Morgan’s attacks.”
It all began on Sunday during Oprah’s interview with Harry and Meghan. During that interview, Meghan opened up about feeling silenced and unsupported by the Royal Family. Most shockingly, she revealed that she had considered suicide due to the stress of this family drama.
The following day, Piers Morgan weighed in on the matter during Good Morning Britain.
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word she says, Meghan Markle,” he said.
This triggered controversy all over the world, with many criticizing Morgan for making light of depression and mental illness.
On Tuesday, Morgan clarified his position on Good Morning Britain. “When we talked about this yesterday, I said, as an all-encompassing thing, ‘I don’t believe what Meghan Markle is saying generally in this interview.’ And I still have serious concerns about the veracity of a lot of what she said.
“But let me just state for the record about my position on mental illness and on suicide. Mental illness and suicide — these are clearly extremely serious things. They should be taken extremely seriously. And if somebody is feeling that way, they should get the treatment and the help that they need every time.”
This didn’t put an end to the drama, though. When fellow ITV host Alex Beresford confronted Morgan about his comments on air, Morgan stormed off the set.
Later that day, ITV announced that Morgan had resigned from Good Morning Britain after six years with the program.
Morgan has since continued to defend his original statement. On Tuesday, he tweeted a photo and quote of Winston Churchill and wrote, “On Monday, I said I didn’t believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t. If you did, OK. Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on. Thanks for all the love, and hate. I’m off to spend more time with my opinions.”
While Meghan’s complaint is the most high-profile one, ITV revealed U.K. communications regulator Ofcom received over 41,000 complaints about Morgan’s comments on Monday’s show.
A spokesperson for Ofcom also announced, “We have launched an investigation into Monday’s episode of Good Morning Britain under our harm and offence rules.”