Piers Morgan has announced that he will file a defamation lawsuit against Charles Spencer and Penguin Books after Spencer wrongly blamed Morgan for the Sunday Mirror’s publication of intrusive photographs of Princess Diana in 1993. Spencer makes the claim in his new book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is published today.
In the book, Spencer recalls the time in 1997 when he telephoned various newspaper editors to disinvite them from Diana’s funeral. He writes (p. 74) that Morgan “snarled with annoyance” when told that he was no longer invited, and he speculates as to why Morgan reacted this way: “I assumed Morgan must be feeling particular guilt because, four years earlier, he and his Sunday Mirror counterpart had published photographs taken with hidden cameras by a gym owner. They were of Diana working out in a leotard.”
In the book, Spencer recalls the time in 1997 when he telephoned various newspaper editors to disinvite them from Diana’s funeral. He writes (p. 74) that Morgan “snarled with annoyance” when told that he was no longer invited, and he speculates as to why Morgan reacted this way: “I assumed Morgan must be feeling particular guilt because, four years earlier, he and his Sunday Mirror counterpart had published photographs taken with hidden cameras by a gym owner. They were of Diana working out in a leotard.”
The Sunday Mirror did print the Diana gym photos (on 7th November 1993), and she sued the newspaper for invasion of privacy. (The gym owner also sold the images to various American and European magazines, including Paris Match.) But at that time, Morgan was not yet working for the Mirror: he joined the newspaper as editor in 1995, thus he had no connection to the Diana photo controversy.
Morgan explained this on his Uncensored YouTube show yesterday, saying: “It’s all bullshit.” He also addressed Spencer directly: “I would like the complete lie that you’ve published about me and those photographs to be removed from your book”. (Morgan’s outrage does, of course, have a performative element, as it makes a good story for his show.)
Morgan explained this on his Uncensored YouTube show yesterday, saying: “It’s all bullshit.” He also addressed Spencer directly: “I would like the complete lie that you’ve published about me and those photographs to be removed from your book”. (Morgan’s outrage does, of course, have a performative element, as it makes a good story for his show.)
Coincidentally, Morgan wrote about his call with Spencer in his diary, The Insider. In that book (p. 174), published in 2005, Morgan says that it was Spencer, not himself, who had “rage simmering in his voice.” The Insider gives a very different account of Morgan’s reaction to being disinvited: he quotes himself telling Spencer courteously, “It goes without saying that we will respect your wishes. Could you please pass my personal condolences to your mother, as we have always got on well?”
Spencer issued a statement retracting his comments about Morgan and the gym photos, though Morgan is calling for the book to be pulped and reprinted with the passage about the phone call removed. The Insider had numerous inaccuracies of its own, as Private Eye magazine reported when it was released, so this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Spencer issued a statement retracting his comments about Morgan and the gym photos, though Morgan is calling for the book to be pulped and reprinted with the passage about the phone call removed. The Insider had numerous inaccuracies of its own, as Private Eye magazine reported when it was released, so this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
