Piers Morgan amps up anti-Meghan Markle rhetoric in interview with Tucker Carlson

Piers Morgan, Britain's leading media foe of Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan, is not backing off his contempt for the American duchess: "Now, is she deliberately lying? Is she completely delusional? I don't know, but frankly, I don't care."

Morgan talked to Fox News' Tucker Carlson Monday, presenting himself as a victim of a "woke mob" that cost him his co-host job on "Good Morning Britain" (which he quit) for alleged racism after he questioned the Duchess of Sussex's truthfulness during her interview with Oprah Winfrey last month.

"Many Americans are believing (what she said) and it's not true – that's what angered me, that's what enraged me," Morgan said. "There was a growing sense that if you don't believe Meghan Markle, then you were the problem, you were the racist. It couldn’t possibly be that she was lying … At what point am I allowed to disbelieve her without being called a racist?"

A month after vocalizing his skepticism over Harry and Meghan's allegations during their "whine-athon" with Oprah, he still doesn't believe the couple, Morgan told Carlson. He's prepared to be "proven wrong."

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Morgan believes Harry and Meghan – especially Meghan – fabricated allegations of racism within the royal family and indifference by palace officials to her mental health. He believes these allegations have done enormous damage to Britain, Queen Elizabeth II, the royal family and the monarchy, "which I love."

"There are 17 different claims that have been checked and they're either completely untrue, massively exaggerated or unprovable," he said. "I don't understand why I have to believe people who are not telling the truth."

Morgan called Meghan a "delusional duchess on the make (who) wants to make millions – hundreds of millions off her royal titles whilst trashing the royal family and everything it stands for."

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The just-over-an-hour interview – which appeared on Fox Nation, the network's streaming service – featured Morgan and Carlson chewing over Morgan's excoriation of Harry and Meghan after their March 7 interview on CBS with Winfrey, resulting in Morgan's abrupt departure from "Good Morning Britain."

"I was invited to leave because I won’t believe a liar," Morgan said.

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Morgan tied the outcome of his denunciation of the Sussexes to his loathing of "cancel culture," "totalitarianism" and "woke liberals" attempting to shut down dissent and opinions they dislike by labeling opponents as "racists."

"Either you sign up to her fake narrative or you have to be destroyed – it's the purest personification of fascism, it's what my book is about: woke fascism," Morgan said of his book, "Wake Up." He continued, "If we lose freedom of speech, the right to have an opinion, then ultimately democracy dies."

This was Morgan’s first on-camera interview in the U.S. since he stormed off ITV’s "GMB" in a huff on March 9, after declaring that he didn't "believe a word" of what Meghan said during the Oprah interview. Later, the broadcast regulator in the UK, Ofcom, reported receiving a record 41,000 complaints about him from the public.

Soon Morgan and ITV had officially parted company. Morgan blames Meghan, who he said called the head of ITV to complain that Morgan's on-air dismissal of her suicidal thoughts could be triggering to people with mental health issues.

"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," the network said in a statement.

Morgan, 56, has been denouncing Meghan and what happened to him at ITV for weeks, speaking out in interviews, tweets and sidewalk press conferences outside his London home.

He is a leading British media personality, having worked as an editor and writer at multiple tabloids (including two owned by the same company that owns Fox News), as host of talk-shows and as a co-host on "GMB" since 2015. He also briefly served as host of a public affairs talk show on CNN, where he spent time futilely lecturing Americans about their love of guns.

Morgan has been down on Meghan since she first emerged as Harry's girlfriend in 2016. Morgan said he was peeved because he knew her before Harry, but she "ghosted" him, cutting off contact after Harry confirmed she was his girlfriend in November 2016.

It's at least possible she did so under orders from palace minders, back when she was still listening to them, and from Harry, who has loathed the UK tabloids since he was a boy. Under palace orders, Meghan closed down her personal social media accounts when their engagement was announced in November 2017.

In the run up to the May 2018 wedding and for about six months immediately after, the UK media welcomed Meghan as a breath of American fresh air in a stuffy royal institution. But all that went downhill as leaks from the palace depicted her as a "difficult" and demanding diva unwilling to genuflect to royal protocols and centuries-old practices.

Although Harry and Meghan also spoke up about "racism" in the British tabloids, Morgan denies there was any such thing ("I would have seen it") and instead points the finger at the social media "cesspool."

Morgan and much of the UK establishment and media were primed for paroxysms of rage when the Oprah interview with the Sussexes aired with the couple's bombshell allegations of racism in the family and in the British media, plus palace indifference to her mental health which she said caused her to contemplate suicide.

Meghan's mistakes and misunderstandings – about why son Archie would not get a title (yet) and whether their pre-wedding backyard "ceremony" was official or private – left her open to attack from critics like Morgan.

"I'm sorry, I’m not a racist, I just don’t believe her," he told Carlson.

Morgan said he's taking some time off before making his next career move. Carlson said he hopes Morgan "joins us here" on Fox someday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Piers Morgan amps up anti-Meghan Markle rhetoric on Tucker Carlson