Piers Morgan left audience members at the TRIC Awards gobsmacked when he unexpectedly praised Meghan Markle in his acceptance speech.
The controversial figure won Interview of the Year at the TRIC award for his interview with football legend, Christiano Ronaldo reports the Mirror.
The former Good Morning Britain host took home the coveted award during Tuesday's ceremony which took place at London's Grosvenor House.
After the 58-year-old mocked Dan Walker in his acceptance speech, Piers quickly moved on to Meghan Markle as he made reference to his long-running feud with Prince Harry's wife.
And whilst he 'thanked' the Duchess of Sussex during his acceptance speech, Piers' tribute came with a cynical sting as he joked about losing his job at Good Morning Britain after a vicious attack on the Duchess' explosive Oprah Winfrey tell-all interview back in March 2021.
At the time, he stepped down from his role as host alongside Susanna Reid following thousands of Ofcom complaints about his 'misogynistic' and damaging comments about Meghan after she claimed that she was suffering from suicidal thoughts and was dealing with racism while being in the Royal family.
Following an explosive argument with fellow Good Morning Britain star Alex Beresford, where Piers walked off the ITV set in anger, he soon stepped down from his role as host but moved to TalkTV shortly afterwards.
While accepting his award on stage, Piers suggested that everything happened as it should have as he made reference to his feud with the Duchess.
“I want to thank Meghan Markle because, if you think about it, without her contribution to my career I would never have gone to TalkTV," he quipped.
“I would never have been standing here with this award," he sarcastically added.
He also took the opportunity - when accepting his award - to mock rival presenter Dan Walker after he presented the former Good Morning Britain star with the coveted gong.
It backfired when Dan attempted to mock his Good Morning Britain walkout leaving the TalkTV host to yell 'f**k you'.
Accepting his award, Piers said on stage: "Thank you, I can almost feel the warmth in the room.
"I know what you are all thinking, long overdue, but obviously, my initial pain at realising that this was going to be presented to me by Dan Walker was soon overtaken by the reality of the enormous pain that he would be suffering in having to present it to me so thank you, Dan.
"Although what you know about interviewing is beyond me - it was a joke, it was a joke."
In an attempt to interrupt Piers, Dan walked over to the microphone and said: "Hang on, I think this is what I have to do now," before he jokingly punched Piers.
Piers then responded: "He laughs but the day that I did that walkout was the day that Good Morning Britain finally beat the BBC in the ratings in the morning.
"And because I then got invited to leave that evening they never overtook me again so f**k you, Walker."
After savaging Dan, Piers went on to talk about his award, and how grateful he was towards Ronaldo for allowing him to do the interview - but not before calling out the 'backstabbing' radio and TV industry.
In a clear reference to his previous claims about the 'toxicity' of ITV, Piers once again took the opportunity to mock the situation surrounding Phillip Schofield's explosive exit from ITV after his affair with a younger male colleague was exposed last month.
The TalkTV presenter said: "I would like to thank the TRIC awards, lovely to see the whole TV and radio industry together.
"One big happy family, we know that not the backstabbing cesspit that some people say it is, no no, we all love each other.
"And we like being together and we like nothing more than watching our rivals win awards, it's a sweet moment in all our lives, and I am very honoured to have won this award."
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here .
