Piers Morgan

Former editor of British tabloid newspapers the News of the World and the Daily Mirror & and controversial media figure

PIERS was born in 1965.  He studied journalism at Harlow College, beginning his career in local south London newspapers before being spotted by Kelvin MacKenzie of The Sun and given his own showbiz column, Bizarre.

Rupert Murdoch made him Editor of News of The World in January 1994; he was headhunted two years later to edit the Mirror where he stayed until May 2004 when he was sacked following the decision to publish photos of British soldiers apparently abusing Iraqi prisoners of war.  

He has presented two series of Tabloid Tales for BBC1 and has co-hosted the current affairs show Morgan & Platell on Channel 4.  Piers’ has presented two series of You Can’t Fire Me, I’m Famous for BBC1, which sees him interviewing famous faces that have been at the centre of a high profile sacking or walk out.  

He has made a name for himself out in the States as Simon Cowell’s loathsome Brit mate, playing a mean judge on a new talent show created by Simon called America’s Got Talent for NBC; which rated Number One in the USA. The second series aired in the summer of 2007 and is returning for a third series in autumn 2008.

Piers also appeared in the UK alongside Simon Cowell as a judge on ITV1 hit show Britain’s Got Talent, the second series of which returns to our screens in May.  Most recently he presented a three part documentary for ITV1, Piers Morgan on Sandbanks, taking a look at the small Dorset peninsular that has become the fourth most expensive place to live in the world.   

Piers is currently appearing on American screens in NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice.

His book, The Insider, private diaries of a scandalous decade, became an instant number one bestseller.  His sequel, Don’t You Know Who I Am? Insider Diaries of Fame, Power and Naked Ambition was published in spring 2007.

He lives in London and East Sussex and is a devoted Arsenal fan.

More details:

His career has been marked by a series of run-ins with the royals. Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell sold his story to the Mirror for £300,000 in November 2002.

The paper said it fought off bids from over 400 media organisations to acquire "exclusive world rights" to the story.

But one of the biggest royal rows was the Mirror's publication of letters between Diana, Princess of Wales and James Hewitt.

The editor said the Mirror had passed the letters to Kensington Palace, having obtained them from a close friend of Mr Hewitt.

"The Mirror tried to protect the name and memory of Diana from improper exploitation by James Hewitt and I am proud of having done so," he said.

He caused one of his first royal rows in November 1998 with a story saying Prince Harry had hurt himself, despite pressure from royal press secretaries to drop it.

The headline read: "Harry's had an accident but we're not allowed to tell you."

In 2002, Morgan decided to drop the Mirror's famous red-top logo in favour of a less tabloid-style black and white masthead.

He had previously decided to change the Mirror's focus to serious news after the 11 September attacks, reflected by the paper's broadsheet-style front page on 12 September, 2001.

The Mirror took a strong anti-war stance in the approach to the war in Iraq and won the Newspaper of the Year Award 2001.

Piers Morgan hit the headlines himself in February 2000 when the Mirror became embroiled in a share dealing scandal - after several staff bought shares tipped in the paper's City Slickers column.

He was rapped by the Press Complaints Commission for breaching the newspaper industry's code of practice.

One of his most notorious gaffes followed his appointment as News of the World editor.

He printed a front-page picture of Victoria Spencer, the former wife of Earl Spencer, in a detox clinic, against the editors' code of conduct.

He received a dressing-down from the Press Complaints Commission and was publicly rebuked by Rupert Murdoch.

It was the first of many scrapes that might have ended other editors' careers, but Piers Morgan went on to ride out regular controversy.