Pierce Morgan is in a reflective state of mind. For years, the television host and former tabloid editor have been accused of being self-conscious, self-centered, self-confident, and luxurious. His straightforward approach to Good Morning Britain seems to be undermining his ‘awake’ movement, and on Twitter he targets everyone from Harry, Megan to Beckhams and Madonna, which has been accused of contributing to the toxicity of social media. But now there is something different about him.

The 55-year-old does not struggle with self-doubt, but seeing Kovid-19 catching people in his circle has changed his mind as he tries to challenge the British government on live television in response to the epidemic.

“I personally felt it from what was going on around me with people I was interested in, and it was getting worse physically and emotionally,” says the father of four. “A lot of people around me died, lost loved ones and lay in a coma.”

He is referring to his Good Morning UK colleague Kate Garvey, whose husband Derek Draper, 52, is still in hospital unconscious. But after losing a cousin’s parents, Morgan doesn’t have to look beyond his own family to understand the impact of the disease.

“It’s not about losing a parent; it’s about not being able to say goodbye, you know, having their last conversation on a care phone on FaceTime and then having a funeral with eight people.

“I think the reality of this disease really convinced me. I had a lot of people I knew who were really suffering and losing loved ones. It gave me a real determination to make sure the country and the government were dealing with it. This is good.”

His description of “Boris Johnson failing to make the right decisions at the right time” irritated him. He criticizes “the incompetence that has caused so much death, heartache and economic turmoil in this country.”

As a result, Morgan does not sleep well and has had “many” nights, worrying about what’s next.

“It’s so hard to sleep, you’re constantly waking up – your mind is roaring,” he says. “But I remind myself – imagine being in a hospital, being a doctor, a nurse or a cleaner in a corona virus ward. It quickly resolved the feeling of self-pity I might have.”

He now finds himself reflecting on his life, including his mistakes. “I think it made me re-evaluate, you know, what I’m important in life, my priorities, how I want to move my life forward, how I want to behave.”

He describes it as “progressive activity” and admits that it “occasionally goes back to some old habits.” But overall I think this has definitely made me a reality and we need to get a better society out of it. “

Morgan, sitting on a sofa in his west London home, is not like the serious, suit-clad, screaming man who regularly irritates his co-host Susanna Reed on breakfast TV.

A few days before our interview, he reappeared remotely on The Late Late Show. Not being there personally upset him “because I love that trip, I love Ireland”.

He says he occasionally turns to his religion to help him navigate this year’s difficult moments on and off the screen.

“I’m a Catholic, and I’m praying for solutions to difficult problems. I’m praying for a few people who are going through hellish situations,” he adds, “because sometimes you need to understand that someone is there. Looking a little for you. “

As a subscriber to the ‘tough upper lip’ approach to life, was Morgan passionate about the intensity of the early days of the pandemic? “Yeah, I did. I remember that random interviews kept me away – not like crying, but definitely feeling on the edge of it.”

On one occasion, the mother of a friend was fighting for her life in a South London hospital while on her way to interview British Health Minister Matt Hancock. “I was very angry. I went on steam that day because of personal experience of what was going on.”

Morgan claims that there is no sympathy in the body of the American president, and that his famous friendship with Donald Trump is a danger of contagion. If you can park a moment of tweeting and ridiculous rhetoric to fully judge his actions in four years, he was not really like the devil, the liberal awakened crowd would have told you.

“The problem is that his mouth speaks to him in bad situations. He creates a very bad voice for the presidency.”

“A leader does not intend to be a fool **** er. ​​He and Boris Johnson are major fools **** who think they can get away with any problem, but in reality, you can not get rid of a killer virus. They will find you”.

In April, Morgan told a newspaper column that Trump should pay “F ** k up,” and the president instantly followed him on Twitter. He tells me that he approached Trump in the next few weeks with a note through a mutual friend, and then told them “just a moment.” The President laughed out loud when he saw your post. ”

“I think they can fix it as soon as they lose next month’s election. I do not think we’re able to fix the damage. I want to think about the end of it all, let’s go back as friends like we did before.”

Another crucial moment for him this year was the death of his friend Love Island host Caroline Flock, who committed suicide in February.

“What a frustrating situation when a young, beautiful, talented woman feels the need to take her own life,” he says. “Many of these are flat-out expulsions on social media.”

After tweeting his condolences at the time, he accused online trolls of being part of “Scoom Media” and causing Flock’s death. “I fell asleep for the crime of killing her, so it’s disgusting. I have never said or written anything bad about her in my life. It hurts incredibly because we are friends.”

But as someone known for fighting feminists, trans activists, “snowflakes” and “attention-grabbing” celebrities, Morgan admits he’s “no whiter than white hands about this kind of thing.”

7.6m on Twitter. He, who has followers, admits that “I can’t get a divorce on my own if I’m completely honest about being a part of this toxin on social media.”

He does not view “tone-deaf, narcissistic, deceitful, Harry and Megan” and will not end the war against the “virtue-signaling wake brigade”.

He says his new book, Wake Up, is about “the hypocrisy of the ranks of those who are considered socially conscious” and that freedom of speech is never more important.

“We all had the greatest awakening call in our lives. Our freedom has not been attacked in this way, our lives have not been attacked in this way. An invisible enemy surrounds the entire planet, causing hell to the people.”

Kovid’s year has brought in some new fans, and even the Guardian praised him in April as the “Voice of the Nation.”

“It is the responsibility of all of us to help be part of the solution,” he says. “You have to punch, not to the sides or down. I need to use my platform more prudently than I did before.”

Pierce Morgan’s ‘Wake Up’ was published by HarperCollins

Sunday Independent