ITV CEO Carolyn McCall has revealed that she fully believes Meghan Markle’s statements on mental health, which is contrary to ITV presenter Piers Morgan’s case.
The outspoken presenter Morgan, co-presenter of ITV’s breakfast show “Good Morning Britain”, suggested that he did not believe Markle’s statements during the Monday edition of the show. During the interview with Oprah Winfrey, Markle said that she sometimes felt suicidal while she was part of the royal family and that she did not receive the support they needed from them, even though she asked for it. “I do not believe a word she says,” Morgan said Monday in the program. “I would not believe her if she read me a weather report.”
Morgan storms off on Tuesday, while ‘Good Morning Britain’ is being broadcast live, following a quarrel with defender Alex Beresford, who called Morgan’s behavior ‘devils’.
Beresford said: ‘I understand that you do not like Meghan Markle, you have made it so clear several times about this program. She is entitled to cut you off. Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I do not think she has. But you keep making her trash. ‘
Morgan walked away and said, ‘Sorry. You can trash my trash, but not on my own show. See you later.”
So @alexberesfordTV defend Meghan on @gmb and criticize @piersmorgan for what he said about Meghan’s mental health.
Piers walks off the set.
Surely Piers knows if you give it, you must be able to take it?pic.twitter.com/gmoNjMxiQy– Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) March 9, 2021
Morgan later returned to the show and told Beresford: ‘What we need to do is talk to each other in a civilized way as we are working on the same show and in the same team. This is probably not one of the best ways to tackle a fairly personally condescending monologue on one of your colleagues. ‘
McCall said in an income call for financial results with the press on Tuesday: ‘I totally believe what she said, that the most important thing with mental health that ITV does and that she’s committed to is that we support people, talk, we listen, we say everyone should listen and everyone should believe, because that’s how you make people talk. So we are very much committed to that. ”
Mental health charity Mind said they were “disappointed” with Morgan’s comments about Markle.
– Mind (@MindCharity) March 8, 2021
“We work with Mind and we work with CALM and we work with the whole range of health organizations, and we will continue to do that,” McCall added. The executive said she did not have the chance to speak to Morgan herself.
‘I have not spoken to Piers myself, but I know Kevin Lygo [ITV managing director for media and entertainment] talk to him regularly and have been doing so for the past few days, ”McCall said.
Referring to Beresford, McCall said: “Alex really made a passionate and outspoken statement. And it was quite a noisy discussion that I did not think of producing anything at all. I think one of the things I would emphasize is that ITV has a lot of votes and that we try to present a lot of votes on ITV every day. It is not about one opinion. And so I think that’s what happened this morning. ‘
The TV Mindset, a TV and film industry initiative that supports freelancers dealing with mental illness, also added their voice to the Morgan issue.
“Mental health is important,” tweeted The TV Mindset. ‘Black lives still matter. And our crosses need more allies and protection than ever before, because we can certainly not rely on companies that claim to want ‘Get Britain Talking’, but then fire people when they finally have the courage to do so. ”
Mental health is important. Black lives still matter. And our crosses need more allies and protection than ever before, because we can certainly not rely on companies that claim to want ‘Get Britain Talking’, but then fire people when they finally have the courage to do so.
– The TV Attitude (@the_tv_mindset) March 8, 2021
“Get Britain Talking” is an ITV mental health initiative.