Piers Morgan

Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (born Piers Stefan O'Meara on 30 March 1965) is an English broadcaster, journalist, television personality, and writer. He is widely recognized for his career as a national newspaper editor in the United Kingdom, as well as his work as a talk show host, news presenter, and talent show judge.

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Morgan was raised as a Catholic by his mother, Gabrielle, and his father, Vincent O'Meara, who died when Morgan was 11 months old. After his mother remarried Glynne Pughe-Morgan, he took his stepfather's surname. He was educated at Cumnor House, Chailey School, and Priory School before briefly working at Lloyd's of London. He then studied journalism at Harlow College and joined the Surrey and South London Newspaper Group in 1985.

Morgan began working as a freelance journalist at The Sun in 1988, writing the show business column Bizarre. In January 1994, Rupert Murdoch appointed the 29-year-old Morgan as editor of the News of the World, making him the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in over half a century. He left the publication in 1995 after publishing photographs of Catherine Victoria Lockwood leaving a clinic, which led to an upheld complaint by the Press Complaints Commission for violating the editors' code of conduct.

From 1995 to 2004, Morgan served as editor of the Daily Mirror. During his leadership, he faced criticism over controversial headlines and was investigated for purchasing shares in a company shortly before it was recommended in a Mirror financial column. In May 2004, Morgan was fired with immediate effect after refusing to apologize for publishing fake photographs that falsely purported to show British Army soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Morgan was later scrutinised regarding phone hacking allegations at Mirror Group Newspapers during his tenure. Although he denied personal involvement, he was criticized in the 2012 findings of the Leveson Inquiry, where Lord Justice Leveson described his testimony as utterly unpersuasive. In 2023, a judge in a court case against Mirror Group Newspapers found truthful evidence that Morgan was aware of private phone hacking from a reporter.

In television, Morgan served as a judge on America's Got Talent from 2006 to 2011 and Britain's Got Talent from 2007 to 2010, and he won The Celebrity Apprentice in 2008. He presented the ITV talk show Piers Morgan's Life Stories from 2009 to 2020 and CNN's Piers Morgan Live from 2011 to 2014. From 2015 to 2021, he co-presented ITV's Good Morning Britain alongside Susanna Reid, leaving the show following public criticism and viewer complaints regarding his comments about an interview with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Morgan subsequently joined TalkTV to host Piers Morgan Uncensored from 2022 to 2024, before leaving the network to move the show to YouTube. Starting in September 2025, a weekly highlights show featuring episodes from YouTube began airing on Channel 5.