Good Morning Britain viewers were outraged by Piers Morgan on Tuesday after he interrupted a segment on the anniversary of the Manchester bombing to talk about himself.
The breakfast show had broadcast coverage from the city on how the 22 victims would be remembered a year on, before returning to newsreader Charlotte Hawkins in the London studio.
With a solemn face, she went to say “that is our top…” before Piers cut her off.
Looking down at his mobile phone, he said: “I’m just looking at Instagram and Shirley Ballas shared a picture of us. ‘You never know who you’ll bump into at the Chelsea Flower Show, charming and dashing Piers Morgan’.”
Charlotte looked visibly annoyed by the interruption, telling the co-host sarcastically: “You’d obviously turned on the charm with her, hadn’t you?”
His co-host Susanna Reid also looked unimpressed with his interruption.
Piers then appeared to realise his error as he retorted to Charlotte: “Maybe back to the news, it’s obviously getting to you.”
Viewers were dismayed by Piers’ “disrespectful” behaviour – both towards his colleague and the coverage of the Manchester terrorist attack, and took to Twitter to condemn him.
“Piers that was disgusting interrupting the end of the Manchester report with news of Shirley Ballas with a big grin on your face shameful! #GMB,” wrote one.
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“Piers, you need to apologise and stop butting in. Have some respect when someone’s talking, please,” said another.
“Thinking very disrespectful to go from an item about the Manchester Bombing anniversary to not even acknowledge it but talk about Shirley Ballas posting a picture on Instagram with him,” wrote a third.
A fourth agreed saying: “Showing he is more interested in his Twitter account then anything else. So disrespectful after she was talking about the Manchester bombing!!!”
A fifth told the 53-year-old: “Piers there must be a point where you must start thinking you have crossed the line with you rudeness. And don’t get me wrong I like your controversy but rudeness is different.”
Someone else agreed with them writing: “Piers Morgan needs sacking! He’s so rude and pig headed disgusting man!”
It wasn’t the first time Piers clashed with Charlotte on today’s show, as earlier she had accused him of being disloyal for cosying up to the Strictly judge at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Shirley was particularly cutting about Charlotte’s dance skills when she appeared on the BBC show last year and she also got her name wrong, calling her “Molly”.
Charlotte’s subsequent early exit from the competition led to Piers initially jumping to his colleague’s defence and he launched a campaign to have Shirley sacked.
However, he admitted that after meeting her, he’s now changed his mind.
“She is very glamorous, I was taken aback, I was expecting the Wicked Witch Of The West. She gave me a kiss and said she’d missed me last week (when she appeared on GMB) and then we had a chat about your dancing skills,” he said.
“I began to realise how wrong I had been. Technically there was so much wrong with your dancing it would be damaging for the show for you to continue.”
He added: “So Shirley and I bonded, it was a bit awkward but now I’ll have to stop bashing Ballas.”
Piers also hit out at Charlotte for “using my name to get publicity” after she was quoted at the Chelsea Flower Show as saying she enjoyed gardening as it allowed her to unwind after stressful mornings working with the former newspaper editor.
Piers later made light of any offence he had caused to Charlotte and viewers after GMB shared a tweet of the newsreader’s enraged face looking at Piers captioned “if looks could kill.”
He retweeted it to say, “that’s love”!
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