Piers Morgan thanks Meghan Markle at Sports Journalism Awards

Piers Morgan jovially thanked Megan Markle during his acceptance speech at the Sports Journalism Awards last night.

Morgan (57) won the "Scoop of the Year Award" for his viral interview with Cristiano Ronaldo, which aired on "Piers Morgan Uncensored" in two parts. The first part aired on November 16th 2022 and the second part a day later on the 17th of November. 

During Morgan's acceptance speech, he thanked the team who work on his show and he thanked Ronaldo for allowing Morgan to interview him: "I want to thank my colleagues at TalkTV at Piers Morgan Uncensored. It has been absolutely brilliant."

"I would also like to thank Meghan Markle. Without her, there wouldn't be a TalkTV Piers Morgan Uncensored. Thank you, Meghan." 

The comment divided the room. Some people laughed and others reacted with nervous "oohs" and "ahhs". Morgan continued with his controversial comments when he thanked Ronaldo and referred to him as "the greatest number seven in Manchester United history" until yesterday. 

Morgan's comments on Markle are a reference to his forced removal from his position on Good Morning Britain in March of 2021. After a controversial interview on Oprah with the Duke of Sussex Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, Morgan accused the couple of lying about their accusations against the Royal Family. 

Morgan's comments received over 50,000 Ofcom complaints, forcing GMB to make Morgan step down from his position - a decision Morgan claimed was against his free speech. Ofcom has since rejected the complaints against Morgan.

The removal of Morgan led to him starting his own show "Piers Morgan Uncensored". Prior to starting his show, Morgan said this: "I used to think I was uncensored, and then of course when I left Good Morning Britain, it turned out that I actually was being censored in the sense that I was told I had to apologise for disbelieving Princess Pinocchio or I would have to leave the building.

"So I took the leave-the-building option, which I thought was a sad moment for me and for the show. I thought it was the wrong call by ITV.

"It was all a bit dramatic, but of course what it really did was focus everyone's minds to, 'what is free speech?'"