This post deals with mental health and suicide ideation and might be triggering for some readers.
Whoever would've thought, when Piers Morgan called his friend Meghan Markle a cab to a party one fateful night, we'd end up here.
The party she attended happened to be the one where she met Prince Harry, according to ol' Piers, and led not only to the demise of his short-lived friendship with the future duchess but to... literal years of very long, very mean stories in the Daily Mail and on-screen rants.
Because Piers Morgan got ghosted by a woman, he had only met once, resulting in a very personal vendetta.
Now, it's cost him his job.
Watch: Piers Morgan leaves the Good Morning Britain studio. Post continues below video.
It seems Morgan has had a very... bad 24 hours. But first, some context:
As mentioned, he had met Markle back when she was just a semi-famous Suits actress in town to watch her pal Serena Williams at Wimbledon.
He explained on Ireland's The Late Late Show in 2018 how it all began when he'd followed a number of Suits stars on Twitter. Fair enough tbh, how good's Harvey Specter?
Anyway, he reckoned Markle sent him a message soon after to say thanks for the follow, and that she was a fan. They struck up a virtual friendship of sorts, and arranged to meet for a drink when she was in London.
"We had two hours in the pub, she had a couple of dirty martinis and pints - we got on brilliantly," he explained.
"Then I put her in a cab, and it turns out it was the cab that took her to a party where she met Prince Harry. The next night they had a solo dinner, and that was the last I ever heard from Meghan Markle. I never heard from her again - Meghan Markle ghosted me."
He has since spent the last uh, *checks calendar*, fours years criticising Markle at any opportunity because of it.
And goodness, has Morgan, who until today hosted one of the UK's biggest morning shows and maintains a column in one of its widest circulated tabloids, had many opportunities.
Which brings us to now. Golly, it's been a big few days.
It all began a little bit further back, with the airing of Meghan and Harry's tell-all interview with Oprah.
This happened overnight UK time, but by early the following morning Morgan had written a column for the Daily Mail with the headline *deep breath*: 'Meghan and Harry's nauseating two-hour Oprah whine-athon was a disgraceful diatribe of cynical race-baiting propaganda designed to damage the Queen as her husband lies in hospital - and destroy the Monarchy'.
He wrote that after sitting through the entire thing, "steam was erupting out of my ears like an exploding geyser" which sounds like something he should see a doctor about.
For a major chunk of Monday morning's GMB show, he continued ranting about Markle being a 'liar' and how he did not believe anything she said.
When his co-presenter Susanna Reid reiterated Markle had said she'd been driven to the verge of taking her own life, Morgan replied: "She says that, yes."
His appearance that morning triggered more than 41,000 complaints to Britain's media regulator, which later announced an investigation under its "harm and offence" rules.
British mental health charity Mind condemned him too.
"It's vital that when people reach out for support or share their experiences of ill mental health that they are treated with dignity, respect and empathy. We are in conversations with ITV about this at the moment." the charity said in a statement.
Morgan's employer ITV has an ongoing mental health campaign called Britain Get Talking, and it too made clear it did not agree with his assertion that Markle had lied.
Which brings us to Tuesday morning (Tuesday evening, AEDT).
Morgan qualified his comments on Tuesday, saying: "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.
"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."
But that was not the end of it. Later in the show he was criticised by his co-presenter Alex Beresford, who said he'd had enough of Morgan's own on-air 'whine-athon'.
"I understand that you don't like Meghan Markle, you've made it so clear a number of times on this programme, and I understand you've got a personal relationship with Meghan Markle and she cut you off," Beresford told Morgan.
"She's entitled to cut you off if she wants to. Has she said anything about you since she cut you off? I don't think she has but yet you continue to trash her."
Morgan then stormed out of the studio: "Okay, I'm done with this, sorry, no, can't do this."
As he left, Beresford called Morgan's behaviour "pathetic" and "diabolical". He then made it clear how exacerbated he was with his colleagues' views.
"I'm sorry but Piers spouts off on a regular basis and we all have to sit there and listen, 6.30 to seven o'clock yesterday was incredibly hard to watch, incredibly hard to watch. This is, you know, he has the ability to come in here and talk from a position where he doesn't fully understand," Beresford said.
Beresford and Morgan had been debating on Twitter for a number of days.
Beresford later tweeted directly about the discussion, in which he'd also shared some of his own experiences with racism: "I wish I had the privilege to sit on the fence. In order for me to do that I would have to strip myself of my identity and that's not something I can do. It's not any of our places to pick apart claims of racism in order to make us to feel more comfortable."
By Tuesday evening, ITV had confirmed his departure from the show after seven years in a beautifully shady statement.
"Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain. ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add."
But hey, it's probably not the last we'll hear from Morgan, 'cause his career seems to have at least nine lives.
Morgan made his name in the cut-throat world of British tabloids, becoming the youngest editor of a title at 28 when Rupert Murdoch appointed him at the News of the World. He later ran the Daily Mirror and was the editor at the time of Britain's news media phone hacking scandal.
An inquiry found "he was aware that it was taking place in the press as a whole and that he was sufficiently unembarrassed by what was criminal behaviour that he was prepared to joke about it".
Morgan later moved into television, appearing as a judge on the reality shows America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent, and spent three years hosting a poorly received chat show on CNN before returning to the UK.
In the meantime, he'll no doubt be adding to his 142,000 tweets over on the blue bird app.
If you think you may be experiencing depression or another mental health problem, please contact your general practitioner. If you're based in Australia, 24-hour support is available through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.
-With AAP.
Feature image: Getty.
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