Morgan, a former CNN presenter,
has long criticised the couple, saying they have
damaged the royal family and sought publicity on
their own terms without accepting the
responsibility and scrutiny that come with the
job.
ITV broadcast Oprah Winfrey's interview with
Meghan and Harry on Monday evening in which they
revealed the depth of her unhappiness within the
royal family.
It attracted more than half of the audience
watching live TV at that time, with a peak of
12.4 million viewers, ITV said.
ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall told
reporters she had not spoken to Morgan, but that
Kevin Lygo, managing director media and
entertainment, had. Morgan is an anchor on its
breakfast show Good Morning Britain.
"I know Kevin Lygo is speaking to him on a
regular basis and has done so in the last couple
of days," she said.
Morgan has cast doubt on Meghan's comments in
the interview. When his co-presenter noted that
Meghan had said she'd been driven to the verge
of taking her own life, Morgan replied: "She
says that, yes."
McCall, who was presenting ITV's full-year
results, said Morgan had "qualified" his earlier
comments.
Morgan said on Tuesday: "I still have serious
concerns about the veracity of a lot of what she
said, but let me just state for the record about
my position on mental illness and on suicide.
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"They should be taken extremely
seriously and if someone is feeling that way
they should get the treatment and help that they
need every time, and if they belong to an
institution like the royal family and they go
and seek that help they should absolutely be
given it," he said.
McCall said Morgan was a freelance presenter and
ITV had no control over his Twitter account,
which has 7.7 million followers.
"He's got personal profile on Twitter, it's his
personal account," she said. "If it was about
our shows, that would be different."
She said she personally believed Meghan, and ITV
was committed to supporting mental health. "ITV
has many voices and we try and represent many
voices on ITV every day," she said. "It's not
about one opinion."
ITV reportedly paid 1 million pounds to
broadcast the interview, which was shown in the
United States on Sunday.
McCall said ITV always followed the big news
events and said there had been strong demand for
ad slots, adding that the broadcaster would
re-use the content in other programmes to
maximise the value of the rights.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Kate Holton;
editing by Alistair Smout and Mike Collett-White)
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