Within hours of Harry and Meghan’s explosive Oprah interview – with its revelations of racism and the Duchess of Sussex’s mental health anguish – who would have thought the first head to roll would be Piers Morgan’s?
Admittedly it was self inflicted – the TV host quit Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, apparently after refusing to apologise for his diatribe against the Duchess.
Hours earlier he’d stormed off set following a clash with fellow presenter Alex Beresford.
Piers is certainly no victim in this. He could have said sorry, he chose not to.
But his decision to leave the show was probably the right one.
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Love him or loathe him, Piers is a talented broadcaster who has done a great job during the pandemic in holding the powerful to account about Covid-19.
But telling his millions of viewers, a day after International Women’s Day, that he thought Meghan was a liar was never going to fly.
And he did it on a channel that champions mental health awareness and one that stood accused of not doing enough to support the late Caroline Flack.
Freedom of speech is one thing, but even I feel he went too far this time.
Full disclosure. As long-time Mirror readers will know, it was Piers Morgan who hired me as a 3am girl back in the day, and he was my editor for several years.
He was a boss who championed diversity before it was even a thing.
When the 3am column was launched he was explicit about not wanting another middle-aged white bloke on the top of a column and he hired me alongside two other women.
When I briefly left, he insisted on my replacement being another black woman journalist.
It was also Piers who hired the Mirror’s brilliant football journalist and assistant editor Darren Lewis.
He was nothing like his pantomime villain persona.
And even though it seems like a lifetime ago, it is hard to equate the editor who was nothing but supportive when I worked with him with the man we see on the telly.
Especially when he was going off on one about Meghan.
He’s been labelled a racist and a bigot by many people.
And it’s not for me to defend him.
He’s big enough and ugly enough to do that himself.
He may have been playing a pantomime villain, but it was hard to watch some of the vitriol aimed at Meghan.
I don’t think Piers realised the impact his morning rages against her had on ordinary women, especially women of colour, across the country.
It’s one thing holding the powerful to account but did Meghan’s “crime”, ghosting him after she met Harry, deserve such a reaction?
Given her husband’s relationship with the press is it any surprise she cut off contact?
If I were to speak to Piers now I would ask him to think about the impact of his words.
They have consequences and they do affect the public discourse.
I’d be saying, while morning TV is a duller place without you, when you emerge from what you yesterday called “hibernation”, please stick it to the people who deserve it.
And maybe give the Meghan thing a rest.
