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Piers Morgan has publicly shamed comedian Stephen Colbert for his insincere apology to Kate Middleton for fueling rumors that Prince William had been cheating on her with their mutual friend Rose Hanbury.
On March 25, during an episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the titular host, 59, attempted to reconcile with the royal family in the wake of Kate’s shocking cancer diagnosis.
Colbert’s ‘Insincere’ Apology to Kate Middleton
“You know, folks, I don’t know if you have noticed, but we do a lot of shows and I tell a lot of jokes, and I tell jokes about a lot of different things, mostly what everybody’s talking about,” Colbert began. “And for the last six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life. And two weeks ago, we did some jokes about that mystery and all of the reporting about that.”
He continued, “And when I made those jokes, that upset some people and — even before her diagnosis was revealed, and I can understand that. I mean, a lot of my jokes have upset people in the past. And I’m sure some of my jokes will upset people in the future. But there is a standard that I try to hold myself to. And that is, I do not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.”
He added, “Now, I don’t know whether her prognosis is a tragic one, she is the future Queen of England and I assume she’s going to be be getting the best possible medical care, but regardless of what it is, I know and I’m sure many of you, far too many of us know that any cancer diagnosis of any kind is harrowing for the patient and for their family. And… though I’m sure they don’t need it from me, I and everyone here at The Late Show would like to extend our well-wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift and thorough.”
Morgan Isn’t Fooled
Although it seemed as heartfelt an apology as any, Morgan wasn’t convinced. He wrote in a column for the New York Post, “Awww … how thoughtful, how touching, how compassionate! And yet in reality, how pathetically disingenuous. Colbert didn’t just crack ‘some jokes’ about Kate Middleton’s disappearance. He chose to deliberately promote an unsubstantiated piece of untrue tittle-tattle gossip about her husband, Prince William, having an affair with one of her best friends, Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley.”
Morgan elaborated, “We know it’s a lie because lawyers for Hanbury promptly issued a statement saying: ‘We have written on our client’s behalf to CBS and various other reputable media organizations to confirm that the allegation is false.’ But putting aside the fact that the gossip was untrue, why the h— was Colbert choosing that moment to repeat it anyway?”
And the rant didn’t end there.
“His pitiful excuse for a non-apology last night, in which he didn’t say sorry, suggested that it was only once Kate’s illness turned out to be cancer that his ‘jokes’ became something he should feel bad about,” he continued in his rant. “Frankly, I find that claim rather hard to believe given that when I watched his taunting, vile monologue on March 12, it looked to me like he was deliberately pouring gasoline onto the fire of Kate’s misery as she battled a serious health condition. Yet despite widespread fury, he refuses to even apologize for it.”
“What I find so odd about all this is that he knows better than anyone what it’s like for a family to endure pain, after losing his father and two of his brothers in a plane crash when he was just 10 years old. That horrendous incident doubtless guides his determination to ‘influence public opinion for the better’ and to ‘not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.’ Yet there he was, knowing a mother of three young children had a serious health issue, falsely informing the world that her husband cheated on her with one of her friends. It’s hard to imagine a more disgusting failure to live up to a self-imposed standard.”
Related:
How Kate Middleton Really Feels About the Global Interest in Her Health: Queen Camilla SpeaksColbert’s Own Medical Issues
Colbert, who is best known for hosting The Colbert Report, has been married to his wife Evelyn “Evie” McGee-Colbert since 1993. The couple reside in New Jersey with their three children, two sons and a daughter.
In some regard, Colbert can sympathize with the Princess of Wales’ plight. In 2020, Colbert began developing benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, a type of balance disorder.
“It’s almost entertaining, until I forget, and then I go to stand up, and then I just fall down,” he said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Colbert tested positive twice. In 2023, he suffered from a ruptured appendix that halted The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for several weeks.
Morgan on the other hand, has been at the center of countless controversies, namely those against Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. The latter accused Morgan of attacking himself and his wife to dissuade him from taking legal action. He even claimed that Morgan hacked his phone and that of his mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Needless to say, Morgan isn’t well-liked by the British public, but he told Variety that he was “hired to be controversial.”
