Piers Morgan: ‘Diana book portrays me as a despicable invader of Royal privacy’
Piers Morgan is suing Earl Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, for wrongly stating he was the editor of The Mirror newspaper when it published invasive photos of the former Royal. Morgan says his legal action is for his reputation, and that of the King.
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What’s the story?
Earl Spencer says a mistake in his new book about Piers Morgan is a small error. Piers Morgan says it’s a “massive clanger”, and he’s taking him to court.
The former editor of The Mirror newspaper tells The News Agents that Spencer’s claims he was in charge of the paper when it published intrusive photos of Princess Diana working out in a private gym, wearing a leotard, portray him as a “despicable invader of Royal privacy”.
“It's not a small error. There are several pages of his book devoted to what he calls 'a small error',” Morgan says.
“The 'small error' is him detailing how the Mirror Group perpetrated the most egregious invasion of Royal privacy in history.
“He goes on to say that, not only was I running the paper at the time, but that my spokesman boasted about increased sales figures, that sales then fell because public opprobrium fell on us, and then we caved and paid millions to Diana.”
Morgan was working at The Sun newspaper at the time, a mistake which a spokesperson for Spencer has confirmed will be amended.
Morgan has suggested that Spencer "pulp" the first edition of the book (which is already on sale) containing the error.
‘A despicable invader of Royal privacy’
The Mirror Group eventually settled with Princess Diana, paying £1 million for her legal costs, and giving £200,000 to charities of her choosing.
Morgan says his anger remains at being portrayed as a “despicable invader of Royal privacy”.
“He is personally saying that I orchestrated, benefited, and then paid a price for a really shocking invasion of Diana's privacy,” he says.
“Whatever people want to say about other stuff I've done as an editor, it doesn't dilute the impact of what he's published here being a defamatory lie.
“This story should be removed, and that means if they have to pulp the book, they pulp the book and start again.”
During his time as editor of The Mirror, Morgan was allegedly aware of phone hacking being carried out by its journalists.
He denied these accusations when he appeared as a witness during the Leveson Inquiry, but Lord Justice Leveson wrote, in his report, that Morgan's testimony was "utterly unpersuasive".
In 2023, Prince Harry accused Morgan of hacking his, and wife Meghan's phones, as well as Princess Diana before her death. Morgan also denied these claims. A UK court ruled he was aware of phone hacking at The Mirror.
During his time as a host on Good Morning Britain, thousands of complaints were submitted to Ofcom accusing Morgan of racism, and for comments made about Meghan Sussex's mental health. Ofcom cleared ITV of any wrongdoing.
He says the longer the first edition remains on sale, the more people will buy and read it, and the more the inaccuracy related to him will spread.
Morgan admits that he has made factual errors in books he has written, including the date of a meeting at Downing Street with Tony and Cherie Blair – but says his mistakes didn't result in defamation.
“Everybody makes mistakes in books – you make typos, you get things slightly wrong,” he adds.
“But this is an egregious, defamatory lie about me, and it goes over several pages.
“This is not just a little mistake in a paragraph.”
‘Shocking and damaging allegations against King Charles’
Earl Spencer has said his only intention with writing the book was to pay tribute to his sister, and publish his memories of her death and its aftermath as a historical record.
But Morgan doesn't believe this is the case because the first part of a Daily Mail serialisation published his claim that King Charles said "we will forget her soon enough" after Diana's death in 1997.
"It is hard to imagine a more shocking or damaging allegation against the now-king of this country," Morgan says.
Morgan says he was close with Diana in the final years of her life, and says he "probably had a better relationship" with the princess than Earl Spencer did.
"Spencer is a weird sort of mercurial figure," he says.
"If he's purporting to be this great historian, this situation is obviously very antithetical to being a historian because it's completely factually inaccurate.
"The worst thing about it is, it's so easy to check."
He says if factual mistakes about him can make it into a published book, then there may be other inaccuracies.
‘I’ll see him in court’
Piers Morgan says as well as attempting to defend himself against potentially defamatory claims by Earl Spencer, his legal action and exposing the "lack of veracity" in the book is "significant in protecting the reputation of our King."
"The problem for Spencer is going to get worse, not better, with every day he doesn't deal with this, and the problem for Penguin will get more expensive every day," he says.
"This is not a small mistake. It's a massive clanger, and I was the victim on this occasion.
"But the bigger picture for me goes to the heart of his general veracity in writing this book and his claim to be an historian and the damage he's trying to do to our king."
Morgan says he will see Earl Spencer in court.