‘Comparing Meghan to Diana is a mistake’: Piers Morgan criticises Prince Harry’s scathing letter

Piers Morgan has criticised Prince Harry for comparing wife Meghan Markle to his late mother Princess Diana.

It was announced on Tuesday that the royals are launching legal action against the Mail On Sunday after the newspaper published a letter from her to her father, Thomas Markle.

Morgan is a columnist for the Daily Mail, sister publication to the Mail on Sunday.

The prince issued an impassioned statement against the British media claiming his wife has been the victim of “relentless propaganda” and that he fears “history repeating itself,” adding, “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”

Morgan, who was editor of British newspaper The Daily Mirror at the time of Diana's death in 1997, said on UK talk show Good Morning Britain today that he believes “comparing Meghan to Diana is a mistake.”

"Harry talks about Diana and, of course everyone knows the history there and of course everybody felt for him, but he's not the only person who's lost a parent,” he continued.

"If he's going to be this vicious about the press collectively he's got to be entitled to be scrutinised for what he's actually saying."

"Let's be quite clear, Princess Diana was killed by a speeding drunk driver, she wasn't killed by the British press,” he added. “I was a newspaper editor at the time and I feel quite strongly about this ... this idea that the press were all personally culpable for what happened to her.

"I knew Diana well, I did lots of stuff with Diana, she colluded with the press very regularly, she set up photo situations with the press, she jumped into cars with reporters and gave them her version of stories many, many times.

"Diana was absolutely playing with the press and then ranting against the press.

"He [Harry] has just gone completely rogue, it's highly emotional, highly over the top and I think it's going to backfire."

Morgan — who has been open about his dislike of Meghan, whom he claims befriended him when she was an actress and then shunned him once she entered into a relationship with Prince Harry — speculated that it was the duchess who was the driving force behind the statement.

"This is the kind of statement you would expect from a Hollywood star,” he said. “The kind of very emotional, anti-press tirade ... you don't expect it from a member of the royal family.

"I don't think this is the real Harry, I think he is being goaded into this by Meghan, who wants to be seeing only good press about herself. It's not the way it works.

"He doesn't want freedom of the press. He wants the press to be what he wants it to be."

Morgan, 54, hit back at critics on Twitter, stating that he lost his own father when he was an infant.

And he has continued his tirade against the royal couple in his Daily Mail column.

Words by Albertina Lloyd

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