Morgan Freeman, 86, forced to skip interviews in London as he falls ill with 'infection'

Morgan Freeman has been forced to miss the press tour for his latest project this week because he fell ill.

The actor, 86, was due to promote the upcoming series Special Ops: Lioness in London on Tuesday alongside two of his co-stars, but he was instead absent from engagements.

He was scheduled to attend a photocall and a screening of the new Paramount+ show alongside co-stars Zoe Saldana, 45, and Nicole Kidman, 55, yesterday.

Morgan was absent from both events and the actor also didn't feature in an interview segment about the new series on the One Show last night either.

Morgan Freeman, pictured last year, was absent from a press tour in the UK for his new show Special Ops: Lioness this week (Getty Images for AFI)

A spokesperson for Morgan has however now confirmed that he recently had a "contagious" infection, that they said meant he was unable to travel. He's now said to be "fine".

The spokesperson told us today: "Morgan had an infection which was contagious so he was not able to travel. He's fine now. Infection has gone and he's no longer contagious."

Morgan is said to have missed a photocall for the show at IET London: Savoy Place and a launch event at Tate Britain in London, as well as an interview on the One Show, yesterday.

His absence was noted by host Alex Jones, 46, who said during the interview with his co-stars: "[Morgan] was gonna come tonight. We're gutted he couldn't make it last minute".

The interview saw Zoe and Nicole discuss the new espionage series, which has been created by Taylor Sheridan - who is best known for Yellowstone and its spin-off shows.

His co-stars Nicole Kidman (left) and Zoe Saldana (right) attended a few engagements whilst promoting the upcoming series (Getty Images for Paramount+)

Nicole shared that the show - which launches later this month - follows a group of women in the military, who are on an undercover operation for an intelligence agency.

She said: "You follow their life story in terms of their family, their work [and] the stresses of that." Nicole plays Kaitlyn Meade, who the actor said runs the Lioness programme.

During the interview, Zoe - who plays lead character Joe - said that the project was "very different" from some of her best known roles like in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.

Special Ops: Lioness is due to premiere on streaming platform Paramount+ on July 23. Episodes are expected to be released weekly over the course of the season.

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