Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s press team warned the BBC to be impartial when it covered the Oprah Winfrey interview, reports say.
Correspondents were said to have been sent the bizarre message on Monday, hours before the Sussexes sit-down with the chat show host.
The PR firm is said to have told journalists not to use only ‘white old men’ when analysing the couple’s claims.
One source slammed the stunt as ‘strange’ and they added: ‘This is the UK, not China.’
The latest intervention comes after Meghan wrote to ITV’s boss to complain about Piers Morgan’s coverage – with the popular presenter quitting GMB hours later.
Campaigners yesterday blasted the ‘chilling effect on free speech’ and said they were writing to ITV and Ofcom.
Correspondents were said to have been sent the bizarre message on Monday, hours before the Sussexes sit-down with the chat show host
The PR firm is said to have told journalists not to use only ‘white old men’ when analysing the couple’s claims. Pictured: Emily Maitlis talking to Guy Hewitt, who is the former High Commissioner of Barbados, on Tuesday night
One of the Sussexes’ PRs reportedly warned BBC reporters to use a ‘broad range of contributors’.
A source told the Sun: ‘To be told how to conduct its coverage by a PR person is a bit strange to say the least. This is the UK, not China.’
But the BBC said: ‘We’re contacted by PRs all the time. We had a broad range of voices and don’t believe there are issues.’
Meghan claims she was not upset Mr Morgan said he ‘didn’t believe a word she said’ in her Oprah interview.
But she was worried about how his comments could affect people attempting to deal with their own mental health problems, an insider told the Press Association.
Mr Morgan said yesterday: ‘If I have to fall on my sword for expressing an honestly held opinion about Meghan Markle and that diatribe of bilge that she came out with in that interview, so be it.’
Piers Morgan laughs with a well-wisher near his home yesterday after quitting GMB in a row sparked by his comments about not believing Meghan Markle
On Monday Meghan went directly to ITV’s CEO Dame Carolyn McCall, the former boss of the left-wing Guardian newspaper.
Ms McCall had signed off on the broadcaster’s £1million deal to show the Oprah interview and said on Tuesday they were ‘dealing with’ the GMB host.
Mr Morgan is understood to have been ordered to apologise – but he refused and quit instead saying he had the right to tell viewers his ‘honestly held opinions’.
His departure from ITV’s breakfast show came amid the fallout from the Oprah interview that has plunged the Royal Family into chaos.
Hours after it was broadcast, Mr Morgan branded Meghan ‘Princess Pinocchio’ after she said she was suicidal while five months pregnant and was not given help.
She also accused the Royal Family of being concerned Archie’s skin would be too ‘dark’ and denying him the title of prince because he is mixed race.
Mr Morgan, who steered GMB to its record viewing figures yesterday, demanded the Sussexes back up their claims with evidence.
His views sparked more than 41,000 complaints made to Ofcom, fuelled by an orchestrated social media campaign spearheaded by his critics.
But despite Mr Morgan’s years of successful skewering of ministers on the show, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he ‘would miss him’.
The Duchess of Sussex’s decision to intervene in the row came as Mr Morgan doubled down yesterday after leaving GMB.
He called Meghan’s incendiary claims to Oprah about ‘The Firm’ ‘contemptible’ and declared: ‘I don’t believe almost anything that comes out of her mouth.’
He added: ‘I think the damage she’s done to the British monarchy and to the Queen at a time when Prince Philip is lying in hospital is enormous and frankly contemptible.’
He later revealed he left on the day more people watched GMB than its BBC rival, five years after he transformed the ITV ratings flop.
He tweeted later: ‘Good Morning Britain beat BBC Breakfast in the ratings yesterday for the first time. My work is done.’
Mr Morgan has now doubled down on his comments about Meghan Markle after dramatically storming out of the Good Morning Britain studio and quitting the programme. At 6.11am today Mr Morgan tweeted: ‘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’
Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey that she was suicidal when she was part of the Royal Family living in the UK and told her husband: ‘I don’t want to be alive anymore’ – Mr Morgan said in response that he ‘didn’t believe a word she said’
Mr Morgan described his departure from the programme he helped transform into a ratings hit as ‘amicable’.
He said: ‘I had a good chat with ITV and we agreed to disagree.’ He added: ‘I’m just going to take it easy and see how we go.
‘I believe in freedom of speech, I believe in the right to be allowed to have an opinion. If people want to believe Meghan Markle, that’s entirely their right’.
He added: ‘I think it’s fair to say, although the woke crowd will think that they’ve cancelled me, I think they will be rather disappointed when I re-emerge.
‘I would call it a temporary hibernation.’ He added that he is ‘always in talks with people’.
Thousands have signed petitions to get Mr Morgan re-instated on Good Morning Britain.
One, called ‘Bring Back Piers Morgan!‘, accused the channel of treating him ‘appallingly’.
Another – titled ‘Keep Piers Morgan on GMB for his common sense approach to life‘ – had more than 95,000 signatures.
And a third, which has been signed by more than 35,000 people, described getting him sacked as ‘an absolute farce’ as viewers vowed to stop watching it from now on.
New Change.org petiton launched to ‘Bring Back Piers Morgan’ after he quit GMB on Tuesday
A ‘Keep Piers on GMB for his common sense’ campaign launched more than a year ago as a riposte to calls for him to be sacked over his outspoken comments has sprung back to life in the last 24 hours after he quit the programme – it had nearly 74,000 names at last count
Another petition – which was set up last year to stop Piers from facing the axe amid the same calls to silence him – has gained traction again, with the latest name count at 35,000
ITV’s shares plummeted by 4.3 per cent yesterday, following an abrupt end to the presenter’s time there.
Experts say the shock departure of the channel’s tough-talking morning host could have prompted the rapid drop.
Campaigners yesterday said they were writing to ITV and Ofcom amid concerns of a ‘chilling effect on free speech’.
They were concerned about the way the broadcaster insisted Mr Morgan apologise for expressing his opinion.
They said journalists should be ‘free to express their scepticism’ about statements made by high-profile people without the risk of losing their job.
Toby Young, of The Free Speech Union, expressed fears it looked like ITV was ‘happy to censure’ a journalist ‘at the request of a member of the Royal Family’.
Former BBC presenter Andrew Neil, who is launching new channel GB News, said he wished to talked to Mr Morgan about a role, saying he would be a ‘great asset’.