Piers Morgan says he is taking legal action against Earl Spencer
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What defamatory claim did Earl Spencer make about Piers Morgan in the new Diana memoir?
The Claire Byrne Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance.
Piers Morgan said he's going to take legal action against Earl Spencer over claims made about him in the new Princess Diana memoir, Swan Song. In the book, Spencer described being flabbergasted to learn that newspaper editors had been invited to Diana's funeral. And also thought that Piers Morgan must be feeling guilt over Daily Mirror pictures of Diana in a leotard four years previously. But Piers Morgan was not editor of The Mirror at the time. Here's Piers explaining his position to Mark Austin on Sky News last night.
Well I accept the apology, but just to be clear, what he published was a defamatory lie, and an egregious one over several pages of his book. And there is no indication at the moment from Earl Spencer that he's withdrawing the book or pulping that edition, which contains something which he now admits is completely untrue. Uh so uh we have submitted a legal letter uh via Shillings, the uh London based law firm tonight. It will go to Earl Spencer personally and to executives at Penguin, demanding that they withdraw this book from public sale. Every penny of any damages that I get from this, by the way, will go to the King's Trust.
How did Piers Morgan respond publicly and what legal action did he announce?
And the longer this book is on sale without Penguin removing it, then the higher the damages will be, and the more money will go to the King's Trust. So it's entirely down to Earl Spencer and Penguin how long they want to.
Well Jim Waterson is editor of London Centric and he joins me now. Jim, Earl Spencer, Charles Spencer, he's in a really tricky spot here, isn't he? 'Cause he's admitted the mistake.
Yes, and it's a it's a a fairly straightforward defamatory statement that he told uh he wrote in a book published by one of the biggest publishers in the world, uh something that didn't happen with where Piers Morgan was supposedly contributing to the the the mental collapse of Princess Diana. It's it's it's pretty cut and dry. But uh Piers Morgan is also a man who uh is one of the world's greatest self promoters and will never shy away from a chance to to make the most of that. So what might have been a fairly quickly dealt with issue uh is is looking like he's going to make it string it out for as long as possible.
And I attempted to explain what the mistake was there in the beginning, but essentially there were photographs taken covertly of Diana at the gym. And i i it was alleged in the book, or it said very clearly, that Piers Morgan was the editor when those pictures appeared, which was not the case. Isn't that what we're dealing with here?
What are the specifics of the legal letter sent to Earl Spencer and Penguin?
Yeah, he became editor of it of The Mirror a few years later. So it's pretty straightforward that a different editor made that decision. Uh I mean, at the same time, we do have to recognise that Piers Morgan was editor of The Mirror when it routinely hacked phones, uh, and that a judge in the UK found that he had knowledge of that, and also that Prince Harry was subject to unlawful intervention by mirror journalists. So there's a bit of background to this. that there's an endless scrap over the legacy of a woman who died in nineteen ninety seven. Um, that you know, whether it's her brother or Piers Morgan, everyone is happy to use the fact that we can't stop talking about her still. And there's a lot of legal background that's gone on for decades.
I sat through so many court hearings where Piers Morgan was accused of various misdeeds at the mirror. The stupid thing that Charles Spencer has done is accused him of one that he didn't do.
Yeah, and the reason why the water is really hot now for Earl Spencer is because Piers Morgan and he made it really clear last night, he is on the side of King Charles on all of this, which seems to be part of the reason why he's saying, Yep, I accept the apology, but I'm not stopping my legal action until you pulp the book.
Well, I mean that that's certainly one explanation. I think he's also a man with the new YouTube channel to promote who will be absolutely delighted that he's all over the news as well.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What defamatory claim did Earl Spencer make about Piers Morgan in the new Diana memoir?
0:01–1:24
2
How did Piers Morgan respond publicly and what legal action did he announce?
1:24–2:40
3
What are the specifics of the legal letter sent to Earl Spencer and Penguin?
2:40–3:55
4
Why does Piers Morgan want any damages to be donated to the King's Trust?
3:55–5:04
5
What background does Jim Waterson provide about the defamation and past legal issues?
5:04–6:37
6
How might the dispute affect the book’s sales and potential republishing decisions?
6:37–8:00
7
What broader commentary do the hosts offer on royalty coverage and media attention?
8:00–9:06