Did Meghan Markle’s Pressure Force Piers Morgan Out of ‘Good Morning Britain’?

Meghan Markle has reportedly filed a formal complaint to ITV after Piers Morgan’s controversial comments on her mental health.

DailyMail.com reports Markle was in communication with ITV CEO Dame Carolyn McCall just hours before Piers Morgan quit “Good Morning Britain.”

A source told the Press Association that Markle was not upset with Morgan’s comments, but was concerned about how his remarks could affect others dealing with mental health issues.

ITV News’ royal editor Chris Ship seemingly confirmed the reports, tweeting, "The Duchess of Sussex formally filed a complaint to @ITV on Monday. It’s thought to have been sent to the broadcaster’s CEO. Meghan raised concerns about how @piersmorgan’s words affect the issue of mental health and what it might do to others contemplating suicide.”

On Monday, Morgan had reacted to Markle’s revelation that she had endured suicidal thoughts by asking on the morning show, “Who did you go to? What did they say to you? I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word she said, Meghan Markle. I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report.”

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has received over 41,000 complaints about Morgan’s comments. In a statement, an Ofcom spokesperson told Variety, “We have launched an investigation into Monday’s episode of ‘Good Morning Britain’ under our harm and offense rules.”

It has been reported that Morgan was ordered to apologize to keep his job, or quit if he refused.

Following his dramatic exit, Piers doubled down, tweeting, “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.”

Hours before his exit, Morgan stormed off the “Good Morning Britain” set after his colleague Alex Beresford called him out for his unwaveringly critical comments about Markle.

Beresford told Morgan, “I understand that you don’t like Meghan Markle. You’ve made it so clear a number of times on this program, and I understand that you had a personal relationship with Meghan Markle and she cut you off.”

“Has she said anything about you after she cut you off?” Beresford asked. “She’s entitled to cut you off if she wants to. And yet you continue to trash her.”

After he stormed off, Morgan tweeted, “I was annoyed, went for a little cool-down, and came back to finish the discussion.”

“I just prefer not to sit there listening to colleagues call me diabolical,” Piers argued, though he was already leaving the set by the time Beresford said the word “diabolical.”

After his return, Morgan told viewers, “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 on my position on mental illness and on suicide. These are clearly extremely serious things and should be taken extremely seriously and if someone is feeling that way they should get the treatment and the help they need every time. And if they belong to an institution like the royal family and they go and seek that help they should absolutely be given it.”