The former presenter’s comments about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on ITV show Good Morning Britain received a record-breaking 57,000 complaints to UK broadcast watchdog Ofcom.
ITV and Morgan parted ways after the broadcast of the episode.
Morgan said he “didn’t believe a word she says” after Markle discussed feeling suicidal in her highly revealing interview with Oprah Winfrey.
He then stormed offset during the next day’s episode when confronted about his comments by colleague Alex Beresford.
His comments about not believing Markle received widespread backlash, particularly due to ITV’s prominent support of mental health charity Mind.
The charity said in a statement after the episode aired, “we were disappointed and concerned to see Piers Morgan’s comments on not believing Meghan’s experiences about suicidal thoughts today. It’s important that when people reach out for support or share their experiences with mental health that they are treated with dignity, respect and empathy.”
“We are in talks with ITV about this at the moment.”
Markle herself reportedly also submitted a complaint to Ofcom.
On Wednesday, Ofcom released their weekly report which showed that the episode had so far received 57,121 complaints.
It surpassed the 2007 episode of Celebrity Big Brother where 44,500 people complained about racism towards Indian actress Shilpa Shetty by fellow contestants Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd.
Morgan retweeted an article by The Sun about the record number of complaints, claiming:
“Only 57,000? I’ve had more people than that come up and congratulate me in the street for what I said. The vast majority of Britons are behind me.”
The investigation by Ofcom into the program is ongoing.
