The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Piers Morgan Unfiltered - Advice To Society, Meghan & Harry, Political Chaos, & Bouncing Back In The Era Of Cancel Culture

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

#837: Join us as we sit down with Piers Morgan – English broadcaster, journalist, writer, & television personality, widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in global media. With a career defined by fearless journalism, unapologetic opinions, & headline-making exclusives, Piers shares powerful insights he has learned along the way. In this episode, Piers breaks down Warren Buffett’s investment mindset, the polarizing nature of social media, & the art of conducting compelling interviews. Piers also dives into the value of uncensored dialogue, the importance of self-confidence & resilience in personal success, & the pursuit of truth on his YouTube show, Piers Morgan Uncensored.   To Watch the Show click HERE   For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM   To connect with Piers Morgan click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   Get your burning questions featured on the show! Leave the Him & Her Show a voicemail at [phone].   This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential   Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn’s favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes.   Visit c1p.org to donate to the Community First Project, a mission to make communities safer by ensuring the quality & integrity of our nation's law enforcement agencies.   This episode is sponsored by SAKS Shop SAKS.com.   This episode is sponsored by Kettle & Fire You can find Kettle & Fire in almost every grocery store, nationwide. Head to Kettleandfire.com/SKINNY to save 20%.   This episode is sponsored by Momentous Head to livemomentous.com and use code SKINNY for 35% off your first subscription.    Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential. Him and her.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny him and her show today we have another incredible episode for you. Love him or hate him, you know his name. He's challenged presidents, sparred with celebrities and isn't afraid to say what most people are thinking. Today we sit down with one of the most influential media powerhouses of our time, Pierce Morgan. From his explosive rise in British tabloids to the global stage at CNN and now dominating YouTube with Pierce Morgan uncensored, we're peeling back the curtain on the man who refuses to be silenced.

That is Pierce Morgan. Lauren and I could not have loved this episode more. We love anyone that can spar on a mic. And to be honest, we felt honored being able to talk to Pierce, someone who has interviewed some of the biggest names, highest performers, most powerful people in the world for decades. It's always a trip when we sit on the other side of people who interview for a living because we still feel like we're learning in this space and we're just getting our chops and just kind of getting into our groove, even though we've done this show for 10 years.

So sitting across from someone like Pierce, who we respect and admire was a total trip. We felt honored. We had a great time. It feels like a guy you could go get a beer with, hang out with, and on and off air, a true gentleman. With that, Pierce Morgan, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. I'm obsessed with Joan Collins. Just so you know, every single book she's the best. I mean, for your audience, Joan Collins is like her mantra for life.

She is fabulous. And you and her together, I would die to be a fly on the wall with that. We have the most. Imaginable. And because she's unapologetically like you herself, she does not mentor. She makes me look like a shrinking violet, trust me. Yes, she is not a shrinking violet.

And Michael, do you know who Joan Collins is? I know who Joan Collins is. And first, I want to welcome you to the show and say we're so thankful because Pierce came to LA and he was warding off dangerous criminals fighting in the street and rolled his ankle. And so we're lucky that you even got here. and he was warding off dangerous criminals fighting in the street and rolled his ankle. And so we're lucky that you even got here. And his movies grossed 2.5, you said, billion?

Yeah, maybe 2.6 now because they chug away. And I still get royalties. My late great manager, who would have been 65 yesterday, John Ferriter, he'd negotiated deals with me. So I would do these cameos, literally like 20, 30 second cameos in some cases and then 12 years later, the money still rolls in. And all it makes me think is if I'm getting that from these movies for a cameo, what the hell are the stars getting? Let me tell you, that's why I've got big houses. It depends who their manager was. That's true. It does. Let me tell you one bit of advice for everyone in the movie game, back end, back end, just only think about back end.

Really? That's not a directive for how you should perform in the movie. It's, it's, uh, it's about getting money residual at the end. So the in perpetuity, if it's a hit, it's a big F if they lose money, the backend of backend is nothing, but if it's a, the rest of your natural life in the cash rolls. Arnold Schwarzenegger talked about this. He said that basically, you know, he's getting paid all this money. And then he wanted to make twins with Danny DeVito and nobody really wanted to

make it, so he took a bunch of back end, both him and it. And he said that movie alone funded shitload of his lifestyle. You know, did the biggest and best deal ever in Hollywood history. Eddie Murphy, who plays the donkey in Shrek, did a deal where he got, I think, a percentage of the profits, right? I don't know how many Shrek's there have been now, but is it five, six, seven, whatever, and someone told me that Eddie Murphy, who by the way, obviously isn't on camera, he's just a voice.

He goes into a van, right, or some room like this, and he just does this for a few hours. Someone told me he's made close to a billion dollars now from being the voice of the donkey in Shrek because of the deal he struck. I'm putting it out into the ether that you are a voice for a cartoon that's coming up I think that your voice is so recognized. I think I think

Overgy long how the fuck are you not a donkey given my box office record of ten movies total gross 2.5 billion dollars. I'm the moneymaker for Hollywood right why has animated not come calling? I think that you have a battle to. I'm as baffled as you are. Your voice is so recognizable that I feel like it could be a really great cartoon character. I'm loving this. We were talking about you as we do when we have guests on. And I was saying what to me is so, there's many things, but one of the most fascinating things is you are somebody who came from more traditional

media or corporate media, you transitioned into our world, which is more digital media and managed to not only stay relevant, but to far exceed what I think even you were doing in the past. I think you have one of the most interesting shows on right now, period. I think the way that you talk to everybody and open up all sorts of different conversation is one needed and two exciting. How did you know to make that transition? Well, it's interesting because I've always been highly opinionated.

I ran a fairly left of center newspaper in Britain for 10 years. So that was my politics at the time. And then probably like most people, as you get older, you tend to move a little bit more to the middle politically I think and what I realized in the last few years in particular and I've done lots of legacy media So I run newspapers. I've been a judge on America's Got Talent I'd taken about celebrity apprentice and one is how I got to know the now president Obviously, I went to CNN replaced Larry King did four years there

So it was all very sort of conventional television. But what I noticed with my three sons, I got three sons and a daughter. So my sons are 31, 27, 24. And I just watched their habits. And if you want to know why Warren Buffett's one of the richest guys in the world, all he really does is observe people's behavior and he then invests accordingly. So, for example, I read a book about him. When times are really tough, he invests in confectionary companies because people eat more chocolate, they chew more gum.

So we would buy Wrigley's or whatever. And when times are good, you buy airline companies, you buy restaurant chains and so on. In other words, you go where people's behavioral patterns are going. How many people think like that when they invest? I mean, almost nobody, right? So actually, it's a lot more simple than you think. You just have to think what do people do. So applying my Warren Buffett logic, and I've interviewed Warren, one of the most incredible experiences of my life because he's such a brilliant guy. And he pulled out his wallet, he had one of those old light green Amex cards are the ones you first get. And then you quickly want to move on to the black ones and stuff. And I was like, yeah, Warren's unlimited on that light green.

He just, he just keeps it to really like I've got the first one he can get, but yeah, no one's ever kind of persuaded me to get a black one. So, and it was great anyway. And you also don't, you ever sent one text message in his life and he got sued. So he stopped sending text messages, never sends email. He had one of the old flip phones. It was great. It was like, if you're wondering why he's worth 50 billion and when

not it's because of that. But I was just watching behavioral habits and I really got that idea from Warren Buffett. I thought, what are my kids doing? What are they actually doing? How are they consuming content? Are they watching television? Like I do.

No, they weren't watching television at all outside of live sports and most of that is now available on streamers They were watching YouTube even my 13 year old daughter watches YouTube I was like they're just getting everything from YouTube then I read a report that said that a Times about 10% of American television watchers got their news From watching through the YouTube app on smart TVs. So even if you had a smart TV, people were using the YouTube app to watch everything, whether it be news or sport or entertainment or drama, whatever it may be. And this was really interesting to me because cable news was only about 18, 19

percent, broadcast was only about 23 percent. So you could see the way this was going, that YouTube was clearly becoming very quickly the dominant force for anybody under 45, probably in the country and in the world actually. And so I thought, right, I'm going to go all in, you know, I was doing a legacy version of my show, here's Morgan Uncensored on a new network in the UK that ended quite quickly, didn't really work.

But at the same time, we were doing a YouTube version, which was going completely gangbusters. So I was interviewing people like Donald Trump or Kanye or Cristiano Ronaldo or all these big names. And the numbers were absolutely stratospheric. So we're getting like 20 million people watching these interviews. In comparison to what would you get when you were on... Oh, well, if you compare it to like when I was at CNN, if you got a million people watching, that was good

And that was that was 15 years ago. All right, so the comparison now would be less I mean CNN would be lucky to get a million people watching. So if you compare it, there's actually no comparison and We regularly now with Piers Morgan on sensor almost all of our content would get more than Than CNN or MSNBC or any of these kind of networks watching for similar content and he done it I think in a much more entertaining manner which is why more people watch and to your point what I just thought was well where's the niche in the market you've got Joe Rogan he does the big long-form podcasts you've got a lot of people in my space who come

from the conservative right Tucker Carlson Megyn Kelly people like that who do what they do extremely well. Where's the, where's the gap here? What is the gap? There are people on the left, Mehdi Hassan and others who have big followings on the left. I thought, actually there's a, there's a slot in the middle here. There's a slot for someone to be like an old fashioned ring master. You know, the kind of, uh, the greatest showman, if you like, you know, cracking

the whip and setting everyone alight and getting everyone going and in a way Joe Rogan called it a circus he's not completely wrong sometimes I don't want it to be too shouty or too circus here and there but I certainly want to have smart people on all sides of the news with all variety of opinions to be very passionate and very informed and to argue because I think that people who are not too sure what to think about stuff will tune in and they'll watch it and they'll hear that view and they'll hear that view and they'll hear me saying calling both sides out where I think that they're being factually inaccurate

and hopefully by the end of a show, they feel better informed. They've heard both sides and they can, I hope, reach their own conclusion. Yeah. So that is really the premise of the show, which I think makes it pretty unique out there right now, which is why I think we're doing so well with it. It's really interesting how you disrupted yourself. Like I always think about this. Why is the taxi cab company not Uber and why is Blockbuster not Netflix?

I think you constantly have to disrupt yourself to evolve and stay relevant. And you went in and you said, wait, my kids are watching YouTube and you disrupted yourself. And that's, that's very hard to do. Well, thank you, Warren Buffett. Honestly. I mean, I had told that story because he's fascinating. I've actually got a ukulele in my bar of my home in Beverly Hills, which we bought because he plays the ukulele. So cute.

Or a Buffett, right? So cute. And so we bought an $8 cheap ukulele from around the corner at CNN in New York before he came in and in a commercial break, I said to the, to, at the time, the richest and most successful man in the world would you play my way which is was his big song apparently on ukulele would you play on the ukulele live after the break and he went have you got one I went yeah so he looked at it he went that looks pretty cheap I said it's awful cheap I said but would you still do it and to my

astonishment he went you do backing vocals I do it. So there is a clip on YouTube of Warren Buffett with our $8 ukulele singing my way as I do backing vocals. And it is hilarious. You guys should start a band. Well, nevermind that. He signed it, the ukulele, which is in my bar, two peers, a great partner, Warren Buffett. We have a- That could be a very valuable ukulele.

I'm sure. Oh yeah. You know, I just want to put this out there. partner, Warren Buffett. We have a very valuable ukulele. You know, I just want to put this out there. I do know that he doesn't take texts or emails. So what I did is I hand wrote him a letter, cause this is how I heard you get to him. I hand wrote him a letter and I sent it to all the addresses that I could find on the internet and invited him on the show.

So I'm going to put it out here in the ether with you on the show, Warren, if you're listening, please, I will fly to you. He will be if he knows I'm going to put it out here in the ether with you on the show. Warren, if you're listening, please, I will fly to you. It will be if I know I'm on. I'll fly to you. I need a ukulele. Do you know what I loved about him? He's such a simple, pleasured guy in the sense that he still lives in the same home in Omar. He's got other property, but he lives in the same place in Omar. He does the same journey to his office each morning. He passes McDonald's, he gets the same, I think, cheeseburger.

He gets a cherry Coke and he goes to work. He doesn't like text, email, he just uses a landline and he reads and reads and reads. And then he only invests in companies which he thinks are well run and he can invest for the long term. And if every investor just took a look at the moment with all the tariff mayhem, right? People have no idea what to do. You know what Warren Buffett is doing?

Absolutely nothing. As he said, we don't lose any money until you sell. So when it's this turbulent and every day it's up and down and up and down, just sit back, go to the beach, let it ride out, do nothing. How come people can't do that? I found that. Because we live in such an in temperate, impatient time where people's attention spans are like that.

I mean, I'm as bad as anyone. My kids will tell you that you just never focus and concentrate. Cause I'm always like trying to do like 10 different things. We're all like that now. And actually a bit of Warren Buffett Zen, we just take a chill, take a beat. Just let it ride out. The way I hooked my husband, I did nothing. Really?

Nothing. You probably didn't have to do anything. I literally did nothing. Listen. I did nothing. I tell every girl that I'm like, if you have to be doing something all the time and convincing someone to be with you, it's not a good energy to start the relationship out with. I actually agree with that.

Sorry, I did nothing. That's the way I do run my life like that. Well, there is a thing about desperate energy, which that applies not only to relationships, but all areas of life. That's the unlock, do nothing. But isn't the thing in LA that women always moan about the guys because there's so many more men than women in LA? So the dating scene is horrific for women, isn't that right?

You never see the man moaning about too many women. No. That's the narrative. Isn't it true though? There are way more men apparently in the pool than there are women, isn't that right? I don't know if that's true or not, but if you tell yourself that over and over, I feel like you're going to attract that. Totally agree.

What's one truth that you believe that would make 80% of the world furious? Furious? Furious. Most things I say. Although I always say- Let me pull out your scroll. that you believe that would make 80% of the world furious? Furious? Furious. Most things I say. Although I always say. Let me pull out your scroll. Well, I like winding people up, but the truth is I always say to people, it was introduced

to me as the controversial Piers Morgan. I'm like, what do I actually ever say that's that controversial? It might be controversial if you're at the extremity of a debate. If you're on the woke left or the hard right, I'm controversial because I think I'm actually pretty well down the line. I think I have actually quite non-controversial views, but they get flamed out by social media as to be Morgan rages that biological men should not be in women's sport. And that controversial.

Really? Really? Do you think in 20 years time we'll look back on this period and go, that was such a cool idea or actually a bit of a gonna go, that was insane. What was everybody thinking? So although I might appear controversial and although I express myself in a forthright manner and I have a lot of opinions, I actually think my opinions are shared by 80% of the public, be it America, be it Australia, be

it the UK. I'm not the controversial one. I'm the one holding controversial people to proper account for their controversial views. That's my position and I'm sticking to it. You've been at the center of not only political, but cultural events in this, in this world for a long, what do you think people are going to look back and say about this period of time? That we went pretty well insane, fueled by a pandemic fueled by a woke culture,

which has devastated the democratic party in America, which I, like I say, I always used to be left to center, But when I have nothing in common with, with this mindset, there's a problem Houston, as I used to say in, in the space missions. It's like the Democrats have to get back to common sense. Donald Trump seized common sense somehow from the, from the left, which is just incredible if you think about it. So I think people will look back and they'll see this as a period when the pandemic sent a lot of people nuts. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, if you think about it. So I think people will look back and they'll see this as a period when

the pandemic sent a lot of people nuts. And I can see why a lot of isolated people living on their own, spending too much time, probably drinking, getting on the internet, being sucked down, conspiracy theory, rabbit holes and so on. I think a lot of people did just slightly lose their minds. And at the same time, we had a kind of creeping mindset of what struck me as so odd coming from the left of fascism of a mindset of we're going to tell you how you're going to think, what you're allowed to find funny, what movies you can find

acceptable, what clothes you can wear, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it became this scolding thing, this pointy finger. Shameful energy. Shameful energy, canceling everyone and everything that moves, right? Telling you that every historical figure you've ever revered, including Winston Churchill, was suddenly the devil that had to be canceled. And the whole thing was completely insane.

And actually, coming from the liberal left, think about that for a moment. These are people who call themselves liberals. As I call myself, what is liberal about being a fascist? What is liberal about trying to compel people to lead lives exactly as you lead your own liberalism is about allowing people to lead their lives within the law, how they wish to lead them without you poking your big size seven boots in. There was also a self-righteousness from both sides too. Yes, both sides is correct.

So the hard right can be just a censorist, justice cancel culture and everything. I think that, but I do think that 80% of the people are in between these extremities. But what happens on social media is you've got 10% of people on social media make 80% of the noise and only 20% of the public are on social media. Take X, right? Only 20% of the public are on X. And when they're on X, 10% of people are making 80% of the noise and they tend to skew to the extremes.

So all you're being bombarded with is extreme views on the left and the right all the time and it's very tribal. Those people will not deviate from their mindset even if the facts completely change to show them that they're wrong. They'll still defend the indefensible and that's why I think uncensored the show I do what is so important about it is calling out all this stuff and saying facts actually really matter right you can have an opinion about a fact I can give you a set of facts now you can both express completely different opinions about how you view those facts but the moment you start telling me about your truth that phrase my truth that rang real alarm

bells with me you can't have your own version of the truth. There's the truth, which is fact based and then that's it. So if you think you can have your own version and wander around blissfully ignoring science biology facts, whatever by saying, yeah, but hang on. It's my truth. Well, okay. My truth says that the sky is green. It's not. Yeah, but I think it is. this is my truth. Well, OK, my truth says that the sky is green. It's not.

Yeah, but I think it is. It's my truth. We had Dr. Drew on yesterday. Love Dr. Drew. He's fantastic on it. I used to work with him a lot, yeah. He's really good. He said that the biggest problem right now is,

did he say delusion? No, he said just disconnect from reality. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. It's, look, I don't want to say this on your wonderful podcast. It's bullshit disconnect from reality. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. It's, it's, I don't want to say this on your wonderful podcast, it's bullshit. Right.

Um, because, and this is why the Democrats are polling at 24% popularity and they either find somebody like a Bill Clinton, a Barack Obama, somebody that can drag them back to common sense center ground, or they're going to be out of power in this country for a very long time. all Donald Trump do is said well you know what if you're a biological male at birth you won't be competing in women's sport 80% of America went I totally agree right he said we want to close the border to

millions of people streaming in illegally into America yeah he's done it and everyone agrees it's a good idea which by way, the left said for years as well. I've got both. Yeah, they did, but then they didn't implement any policies which managed to, to affect it. So there were lots of simple things which Trump just says very loudly and often in a very, you know, irreverent, if not offensive manner, which, which pisses people off. But the underlying sentiment is a core of common sense, as he put it.

The Democrats have to find that again. They have to get a candidate who's charismatic, who can take Trump on, who's got confidence, male, female, I don't care. Just don't identify as non-binary when you try and do this, because most of America will go, I'm not interested in you calling yourself they, them, all right? It's about a return to common sense and I hope they do. It would be healthy for America.

You know, it's just the same problem in the UK and it's just, uh, it's a, it's a battle for the common sense middle ground where I think most people are. And to people who are still right out on the left or right out on the right, just think hard about it. Look at the facts, trust your gut instinct, not what tick tock tells you. Right. Because tick tock might be being deliberately taking you down a place that someone in Beijing wants you to go down.

Right. So you just got to be smart about this and be better informed. I think there's far too much people looking at stuff on social media and believing it. I hear it about myself. I see clips of myself on tick tock are AI crap, been just completely fabricated. And then people come up to me in the street and go, wow, I didn't know you thought that. And it will be some outrageous appeal. I went, I don't think that.

And they showed me the clip and it's like, that's not me. They've done that with an AI robot. That's scary. That's a problem that's already happened. It's scary. Has there ever been a moment where you have felt scared of the public yourself? Oh Never no, I love that You took a boxing or no give someone a right hook

No, I'm just wondering if there's ever a moment that you felt like unsteady with the public No, I mean I remember taking on the NRA when I was at CNN Because you know look guns are a very American cultural thing That's a dicey conversation. Because, you know, look, guns are a very American cultural thing. Yeah, I got one right here. No, I'm just kidding. Well, it's surprising. But in England, we don't have any.

So it's a very different thing, right? It is almost impossible to get a gun as a civilian person in the UK. We used to all have them. If you go back 200 years, everyone in the UK had a gun. Now nobody has a gun. And my only argument about guns in America was you've got 400 million guns in circulation. You've got a population of 325, 30 million. So it's more than a gun per person.

And the number of mass shootings keeps increasing. And a million new guns get sold every month. So my question for people who think this is acceptable is at what level does does the amount of gun death in America become unacceptable enough to do something about this because it seems to me just a really weird cultural fatal flaw in a country that I love. It's like if you sell a million more guns every month, why would you think the number of mass shootings is going to go down?

It's not obviously going to go up. So how do you make it safer? How do you stop people dying? Now, I learned the hard way that Americans don't want to hear this lecture from me with my accent, but apart from anything else, you drove the British out with guns. So it's for anyone, you're independent. So I get it.

But America needs to have this conversation internally. I would argue now again, I'm not telling you to do it. I'm simply saying at what point does something get done because every time I see these mass shootings, like everyone, my heart breaks. But the actual just volume of gun deaths goes up all the time consistently with a number of guns that get sold. So you're going to have 12 million more guns in 12 months time.

That's 412 million. At what point does something happen to get everyone together to go? We have to do something about it. I don't know the answer. Not yet, not to argue for or against guns, but I think where a lot of Americans that sit in the camp of pro guns look as they will point to cultures like yours or to Australia where governments have maybe overreached and the citizenry has been basically powerless to do anything about that.

And I think we're Americans by nature, as we've seen, are very cautious about government encroachment. I know that. In fact, I read a poll at 35% of Americans, the reason they want to have guns, but also do not want to register their ownership is that they genuinely believe the government may turn tyrannical against them. And if they do, they don't want the government knowing where they keep their guns.

I completely understand the argument and the logic behind the argument. And I also understand that in a country with so many guns, many people, Bill Maher has a gun to defend himself, even though he sort of agrees with me about this. By the way, I thought you were great on his show recently. It was, yeah, I enjoyed that show. So it's a complex issue. I completely get it. And it's a very different culture here about guns and it is to my country or

to Australia, but I, you know, I, it's something I had a long running campaign about and then realized I'm the wrong guy to be running the campaign. Americans do not want to hear this from a Brit. It's a very hot button issue. And I think like, listen, we grew up out here in LA. We're in Texas now. That's where we primarily live. Very different gun laws in both places. I feel personally safer there than I do here. And I'm born, raised, bred in California. I don't care what anyone says, let's live in reality. LA got very dangerous in four years during that gopher where they were very lenient on law

enforcement, a lot of crime was happening. I know personally, not through anecdotes, not through heard of heard multiple people that are one degree or personal to me that have had homes broken into dentists got whipped in the head with the pistol watch stolen, we know restaurant we used to go to shot and like, and there's the strictest guy so it's again Not arguing for against but I get complex issues that I think other countries look at this country like well

Why wouldn't you do this the fact of the matter is to your point? There's 400 million guns in circulation already and a lot of the criminal population are going to be the last ones to give them up I completely agree and that's why it's not an easy fix at all. Yep. Anyway, I learned that it's better that I keep out of this. I'll occasionally say what I've just said, but I also now completely appreciate and respect this has to be something that is a debate by Americans in America, you're not going to change your laws because some snotty voice brick comes along and tells you to give your guns up.

No, but another fact is that these school shootings are unacceptable. Yeah. And it's a terrible problem. And it's something that is a real issue in this country. And I can't imagine what people who are faced with that reality deal with. Again, like it's so complex, I think like anything in the world, obviously tariffs and all those things going, which we're not going to go deep into, but as much as people would like to say like, Oh, I just make one decision and it's simple. It, as you know, doing what you do, it is never that simple.

Nothing. Listen, none of this is simple. What do your kids say when they see any headlines? Did they read the headlines about you? They're used to it. I mean, they don't care. No, they, I mean, they just, they've grown up with it. Yeah. So I've always been in headlines of some score.

They're normally controversial headlines as well. Dad's done it again. You know, they've grown up with it. Yeah. So I've always been in headlines of some school. They're normally controversial headlines as well. Dad's done it again, you know, they find it funny. They don't care. I mean, they're just used to it. So I've always tried to teach all my kids to be first of all, self-confident. It's the most important asset you can give a child confidence. Secondly, to express your opinions and don't follow the herd and don't just believe what you're told, be curious about everything.

Because curiosity is the thing that I think drives all successful people and follow your passion. What do you actually care about? What do you like doing? Don't end up in a job you hate just because you haven't chased a passion. I always wanted to be a journalist and it's given me the best career imaginable. I've had great highs, some massive lows, but even the lows were quite fun. Right.

So, because I loved the job and I knew that in the media, there's always another, you've always got a comeback story. People love it. It's like Hollywood, you know, you just stick in the game long enough. You'll be back. What's a low that you had in how, what was the comeback that you had from the low? Well, I, I mean, for example, I was, I was presenting a show called good morning Britain in

Britain, which was the morning, big morning show over there. And you had the Prince Harry, Meghan Markle interview with Oprah Winfrey. And I took what now would seem to be a very reasonable position of not believing a word coming out of Meghan Markle's mouth about my royal family, calling them a bunch of callous racists.

And I just didn't believe it. And I said, I don't believe a word of it. I wouldn't believe it if she read me a weather report. Now most people now agree with me about the veracity of what comes out of her mouth, but at the time this was deemed so controversial that my company, rather than defending my right to free speech, the network said you've either apologize for disbelieving her or you have to leave. I said, well, in that case I'll leave.

So I left that day after five years of taking it to be the number one rated show on morning television in the country. So it was a really weird thing because I was entitled to not believe either of them or believe them. I mean, most people who came on the show that day believe them. And I said, well, let's just take one story. They claim the Archbishop of Canterbury secretly married them three days before the actual televised wedding.

If he had done that, he would have broken the law and would now be in prison. So that I know is untrue. And that was me saying that in real time on the morning, which you can go and check is would actually make the archbishop account to be a criminal. So I knew a lot of it was bullshit. And I was just not going to just go along with the herd and accept that these incendiary claims about my Royal family were true without independent verification. That's the job of a journalist.

And yet for exercising my right to free speech, I got effectively booted out. Now, what made it worse was Sharon Osborne, my great friend who I used to do America's Got Talent with, was co-hosting the talk on CBS, which she'd done for 10 years very successfully. She defended me on the talk. And Cheryl Underwood, another of the panelists, said, why are you defending him when he said racist things? And Sharon said, what racist things did he say?

Obviously I never said any racist things, never even mentioned anything to do with race other than disputing the racism claims against the Royal family, which to this day have never been established and for that, Sharon got fired from her job that she loved and went into a hugely difficult year with her mental health as a result and this was all because of our right to free speech being challenged in such a grotesque manner you should be able to sit here, both of you right now and say Piers, we don't believe a word you're saying fine, it's no problem, you should be able to sit here. Both of you right now and say, here's, we don't believe a word you're saying.

Fine. So problem you're allowed to, we live in a democratic free society. The day that you said to me, if you don't believe you to, if I don't believe you to write, I get canceled. Well, honestly, the reason we're sitting here doing what we're doing, I think is because of that mentality, meaning like these kinds of platforms gained notoriety and started to rise because people stopped believing a lot of these legacies because they felt like they were not being told the things that people were actually thinking.

That's why you guys are so popular. Why you've been so successful. If you were running one of these legacy outlets right now or media companies, what is one of the first rule books or rules you would tear up? Let them say whatever the fuck they want. Yes, actually. Yes. I got interviewed about, so like, okay, we do this show, but my day job is I run

this business, we produce a lot of shows and people, journalists, especially, always give me so much shit about how I don't step in and censor anyone. I'm like, well, you don't understand. Like the business would not exist if the pre, if the preference was, Hey, you want to come over here, I will have a carte blanche over what you say or don't say. I will approve who you speak to or don't speak to. I will let you know what passes and who you can have. I think people will be like, well, I would never work with you.

Right? Like I just, I think that whole model, it needs to be updated. People want to hear unvarnished, uncensored commentary, and then they'll believe who they want to believe. You can't tell them anymore. They're not going to be told what to think or believe. They're not going to be told you have to watch network television and buy into what a legacy media company wants you to believe. But it's because unfortunately they've been found wanting too many times when it comes to

the truth. I mean the COVID pandemic was a classic example where people at the start who said well obviously they started in that lab they were cancelled. Now it's accepted by almost everybody that it did indeed almost certainly start in the lab, which is not a massive leap of faith. If you think about it, given it was testing coronaviruses in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, half a mile from where it was first found, right, it's not a massive leap to think it maybe it started not in the market, but in the lab with the testing Corona viruses. But if you said that at the time you were canceled.

Yeah, it's, it's funny because doing that, we're coming up on 10 years of doing this and we've had so many different people on the show and we try to do in a similar fashion, I tried to talk to everybody and we had a vodka Trump on the show recently. And it was great. And we had a great, I saw it. She's great. Really great conversation. You're a good friend. saw it. She's great. Really great conversation. You get a friend.

But you know, behind the scenes, the conversation of, Oh my God, you had this person that never happens when you have Chelsea Clinton on the show, which is and when you've had Kathy Griffin on the show and people that are more, and I always, and I just like, listen, you have to be able to talk to people. You have to be. Isn't that interesting? Cause I know Ivanka very well. Delightful person.

Lovely. Incredibly smart, very funny, very warm. We like her very much. Very loyal. I know her from the days I did Celebrity Apprentice and I got to know her well then. And the mere fact that anyone would object to you having someone who's a very successful businesswoman, great role model as a woman, actually, beautifully dressed, you know, immaculately

behaved, and the fact that dad happens to be president of the United States. Right. You don't like it. OK, but actually, you know, I know Chelsea Clinton. She's very nice to all right. Very much to I've interviewed Chelsea. I've interviewed Bill. Hillary is fine.

I have my own political views, but I'd interview and hang out with all of them. This idea that you can't I was on The Bill Maher show on Friday and there's a guy from the Washington Post I saw really going after bill for having the audacity to go and have dinner with the president of the United States at the White House By the way, I don't care who the president is if I get invited that White House to go to dinner I'm going of course like anyone. I'll be there like you same bolt. bit, it's a bit, this is where we've got to with tribalism fueled by social media is that you guys probably got loads of stick for just

having a bunker on and loads of applause for having on Chelsea Clinton. And I'm like, really? Really? I know them both. They're both equally nice. We got equal shit for having balls, which is what, which is what I find so funny because like half the odds, I can't believe you would have another opposite. I thank God you haven't. find so funny because like half the odds I can't believe you I don't know the other half's like I thank God you haven't and then the other one's like I can't believe you

I'd show and it's just it's so funny Imagine if you only hung out with people that you agree with I would have quit the show years ago But imagine if that was your life right where every time you go for dinner Everyone around the table all agrees with everything you say I'd rather shoot myself. That's exactly what I said. I'm like, how fucking boring. I agree with everyone. I need colorful conversation. Yes. You know when you go on a group trip or you're like, I'm like who? Who's gonna stir the pot? I try to put the... I go every year, I go on a golfing trip with my old village mates, 20 of us, and we go anywhere and everywhere. We don't care because we just know that the real entertainment will come when

somebody pipes up about Brexit or something or Trump or what? There's a few pathological Trump haters and there's a few that love him. And they know that I'm going to stir everyone's palm. We're going to get going. And then we just hope somebody completely loses it and blows up like the Soviets and then it's funny. But the idea that I would only go away with everyone who agrees everything I think that would be so dull.

And yet that's what people do on social media. A lot of them go into that little silo. They only follow people who agree with them or who they agree with. And so all they hear all day long is their own opinion, reinforced, reinforced, reinforced, and even when something happens, it completely changes the facts behind that opinion, which means you ought to change your mind, which is a healthy thing to do. They don't do it because their silos told them don't deviate one inch or we lose.

You must continue to say black is white, even if you can see it's white or black, whatever it may be. In other words, just go with what you see. I say to people, if you want to know what the weather's like, look it may be. Right. In other words, just go with what you see. I say to people, we'll know what the weather's like. Look out your window. Right. And if it's raining, it's probably raining. Right. Don't let someone then tell you it's a bright blue sunny day on TikTok.

And then believe that when you left the show, I'm assuming the ratings plummeted. I'm just going to. OK, of course. So what was the comeback from the show for you? What was the moment that you felt like this was all worth it? Well, because it became a huge core celebrity in the UK in particular, but also big in America that I'd had to leave my show over, over disbelieving Meghan Markle, which sounds so ludicrous now.

And then Rupert Murdoch happened to be in the UK because of the pandemic and was watching it all go down. And I used to work for him 30 years ago. And so he contacted me and we did a deal to do a three year deal, which I absolutely loved going back to work for him. I did columns for the New York Post. I'm a son in England. I did crime documentaries of Fox Nation.

I did a show called Piers Morgan Uncored on talk television in UK and then on YouTube, which is where we found ourselves now. And I had a fantastic time and that would none of that would have happened. So really the words I'm struggling to find are thank you, Megan. Have you talked to Megan since I have not. Do you think you should interview her? I feel like that would be love to interview her. It would be very, very nice getting them both in front of a camera.

I have a few supplementary questions. What? Like what? To the crap they told Oprah Winfrey. What's the question? If you could ask any question. First question would be, so let me get this straight. The Royal family were racist about the skin color of your unborn baby.

This is what you said to Oprah Winfrey. And they also were so disgustingly callous that a senior member of the Royal Fountain of the Buckingham Palace team told you, Megan, you couldn't get help for having suicidal thoughts, even though your husband was a figurehead for a mental health charity. You couldn't get help. And the palace told you, you weren't allowed to have help. These are two unbelievable claims. I mean shocking, horrific. If those things are true

the whole war family should be disbanded. The monarchy should end. An odd thing happened. Prince Harry writes his book full of incendiary claims and allegations. Do you know the two things that he didn't put in the book? The racism and the mental health stuff. It was like it never happened. And when he got asked about the racism, he said, oh, that was a media invention. So my first question would be what happened to those claims that went around the world

that caused huge damage to the reputation of the royal family? What happened to that? How come it didn't make your book? Could it be that it was a lot of bullshit and you were weaponizing race and mental health for your own personal gain which is what they did? So I've got a lot of supplementary questions. I think the damage those two have done to the royal family is it's been incalculable. The fact they were doing it as Prince Philip was dying and then the Queen was dying. The fact that King

Charles has cancer now and doesn't speak to his son. I mean all of it is horrendous and here they are over here in California running around using their royal titles to make millions of dollars and it's honestly it's sickening I think. Now people can make their own minds up maybe Maybe they think it's fine, but I think it's been sickening. It would be interesting if you interviewed them. Yeah. I think that would be... I think it would be a very good conversation, and I think... I actually think it would humanize them for you to do it.

Hmm. Maybe. I said not the way I would do it. You don't think so? Well, it might... Listen, it might, I think it might be very interesting. I mean, Harry's big thing is that the media intrude into the private lives of the Royal Family too much, to which my response is, who has been the single biggest invader of Royal Family privacy in the last five years?

Prince Harry. Who has revealed more secrets about the royals than anyone alive. Prince Harry, who has fractured his entire relationships with all the royal family. Prince Harry, it's not the media that's done any of this. So I've got, yeah, like I say, I've got a lot of questions. I feel like me commenting on this is the same way of you commenting on the American gun issue. I don't want to hear it. No, I will say something, but I do think with from the underlying theme of his book that I got is that he feels like the media perpetuated his mother's death. And I think, well, I knew his mother very well.

Oh my gosh. How cool. I used to have lunch with Diana. I used to talk to her on the phone quite regularly. I used to send her stories that we were gonna run and she would edit them and fax them back to me. And I've, so, you know- That's cool. What a crazy life experience.

Yeah, and I really liked Diana. She was fantastic. Diana worked the media exactly the same way the media worked, Diana. She was the biggest celebrity in the world, arguably the biggest celebrity there's ever been. And sharp. Very sharp, and knew exactly how to way the media worked on it. She was the biggest celebrity in the world, arguably the biggest celebrity there's ever been. And sharp. Very sharp and knew exactly how to play the media.

And that's not to say there wasn't lots of intrusion into her life. There was. It's not to say some of that wasn't unwarranted. It was. It's not to say she didn't get more attention than anybody else because she was the biggest star she did. And so it can't have been easy at all, but did Diana manipulate the media ruthlessly when she wanted to?

Absolutely. I mean, I used to get it, you know, she used to call me and, you know, get people to call me on her behalf and tip us off about what she was doing so that she could get a front page. This episode is brought to you by Saks Fifth Avenue. Are you looking for a Mother's Day gift? I have you covered. I can streamline it for you. Just go to Saks Fifth Avenue and check out the Mother's Day gifts section. So easy.

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Oh, and I said, well, why don't we have lunch and then we can get to know each other a little better. So the next thing I get an invitation to Kensington Palace and it was me, Diana and Prince William as he was then age 13, Paul Burrell, the butler. Remember the butler Paul Burrell? It was famous for the one that wrote the book. to Kensington palace and it was me, Diana and Prince William as he was then age 13. Paul Burrell, the butler, remember the butler Paul Burrell. It was famous for the one that wrote the book. Yeah.

Yeah. He was serving the food and we had a two, two and a half hour lunch. It was all off the record. Everything she said obviously was a front page story. It was like torture for a tabloid editor, but she was incredible. Cause you couldn't use any of it. I couldn't use any of it. I later did after she died, I wrote a book and I used some of it then because

by then it wouldn't matter, but she was mesmerizing, incredibly charming, very smart, very funny, but very like, you know, she wanted to make a point of fun to William about where the line is for the media. And I totally understood that it was good fun. I mean, I remember with William, I think it was around that time that we got off the pictures of a poster he had on his wall at Eaton college, which had, don't drink and drive, have a spliff and fly. And we bought that.

We bought that for, I think, 2000 pounds off the market and never published it. So when they talk about irresponsible tabloids, I've got a lot of stories like that of stuff we didn't publish, which would have been at the time very difficult for them to do is only 13, you know, the heir to the throne, advocating cannabis use of 13 was not a good look. So I'm not after any gratitude. I do think in the scales of balance between the media and the royal family, the media has been as much a part of the

Longevity of the royal family when many other monarchies have disappeared through Europe It's interesting one of the last standing ones is the British monarchy and a lot of that's because the media Still fuel them and portray them as the biggest stars on the planet and actually in relation to the guns comparison I don't really agree because we know how much Americans love the royal family. Yeah, I was joking. And actually a little bit, the point being that I wouldn't object at all to Americans having a view of that.

No, Americans are extremely, I don't know what's going on. I mean, I see in this office, people are vested in what's going on with you guys over there on that monarchy. Yeah. I wonder if it's the same with our current family in the White House over there. You know what? A lot of people seem pretty vested. Second time around, there's a lot more support for Trump in the UK than there was first time around.

Well, I think- A lot more. It's very interesting. It's been a much, it's a very different atmosphere I think. I think this time around people have had two administrations to compare, right? And they've, the consensus now is, okay, we tried it one way this time, we tried it another way this time, and now you can compare both against. But I won't say too much more about that.

What is one of the most manipulative tricks you see media using to sway public opinion? Perfect person to ask that. One of the tricks. Yeah, give us the tricks. Give us the secrets. You know, when you see these copy paste videos and it's the same thing with the same puns. Besides AI-ing you. I think it's more that what I do when I get, when I get to the States, I immediately put on cable

news and I'll spend half an hour watching Fox, MSNBC and CNN and maybe one or two others. And then I get a rounded view. It's almost like watching my show, right? I get a rounded view of all the different ways that people are coming at the same story. Take the stories at the moment about the big two deportation stories. You've got the El Salvador guy who's been sent to an El Salvador prison, who's allegedly was a member of MS-13, a horrific gang. If that is true, most people would argue he should be sent back to El Salvador, but he disputes he's ever been in MS 13. His supporters say he's never been in MS 13.

It's a really interesting test case for this story. And then you have the guy who was running the protest group at Columbia, right? Who I think is on rockier ground, if you like, because he's a great here on a green card. And if you repeated his support for groups like Hamas or prescribed terror group, if you repeated repeated that stuff at his green card interview, he wouldn't have got in to start with. So I think there is a much clearer grounds for deportation there. But depending on what network you're watching, you get a very emphatic view. You know, if you're watching Fox, they say both of them should be kicked out. If you're watching MSNBC, they think both should stay.

If you're watching CNN, they've actually moved probably through necessity of falling ratings for being too anti-Trump first time around, they've moved to a slightly more central position and they're being a little bit more nuanced about both stories, which I think is interesting, but if you watch all three, what you're getting is a bit like when you watch my show, you're getting all the views and I think that's really important for a healthy mind is to, if you have a set view about something, we'll watch the complete opposite often watch the network, I think we'll have a different view to me just to hear what they're

saying, to see if it changes my mind. And if it does change my mind, if it turns out this El Salvador guy was a member of MS 13, if they produce actual hard evidence that he was, then I've been wrong about that and he should be deported. But I haven't actually seen enough evidence yet myself to justify what's happened to him. So is your position because we haven't seen that and he was maybe wrongfully deported that that should never be allowed to happen because what it could then, the situation it could create for other cases? Yeah.

I think due process is really important. You know, everyone should be entitled to due process, even the most detestable human beings on earth, because the moment as a democratic society with the fundamental rule of law as its bedrock, along with free speech, the moment you try and circumnavigate the rule of law and due process, the moment, you know, if you start snatching people off the street and throwing them out the country, you don't like, you don't like that tattoo or something, then you're into a very dangerous area because then it can happen to anybody, whereas what Trump has been doing with the Southern border is

demonstrably an incredible success in the space of three months is plummeted by 96% the number of people coming in illegally on the border. But he's not getting much credit for that because a lot of the media don't want to praise Donald Trump for anything. He could cure cancer tomorrow and the liberals of America would be howling with rage. They wouldn't quite know why they're howling the rage other than it's Donald Trump.

Therefore it must be terrible. Yeah. Well, even if it's good. That's, you know, we've had Bill Maher on the show and we've been on his podcast and it's funny because you'll look at a guy like that to who, in my mind, especially growing up was very left. Like my whole life, I felt like he was very left.

And now in a lot of cases, he's looked at as, even in some cases, like right leaning. Yes. But I think I'm similar to Bill in terms of my politics. And I agree. And I really liked him going to see Donald Trump. It's exactly what people should do. You should go and see people who you vehemently disagree with.

One of the most, the best signs of intelligence I think is being able to change your mind. Yes. I think it's truly, if you can say, you know what, I changed my mind, I think that is a sign of intelligence. Well, it shows emotional intelligence, but also intellectual honesty. Yes. And they're the two most important things you can have as a human being to me. Be intellectually honest, right?

Don't follow the, what the herd is telling you. You need to think, think for yourself, work it out and be honest to your own opinion. Be honest to yourself. In other words, don't, don't think, you know what I think that about that. And then say the complete opposite in public, because you're worried about upsetting somebody, right? Be intellectually honest. And then to be emotionally intelligent.

Don't be afraid to change your mind and to admit it. It's a powerful tool. I do it all the time. Now. I never used to, I used to be quite very different character in my like twenties and thirties, much more rigid about stuff. Now I'm much more, maybe because I've just turned 60, but you just go, you know what, I was wrong about that. And guess what happens when you admit you're wrong? Everyone goes, that's really good of you. Wow, that's great. You admitted

you're wrong. Right? You should do this in a fight with me. Are you, are you picking up this advice? No, no, no, I'm never wrong. You literally should say, you should literally do that in a fight with me. But I think, you know, like if you, you know, I think about, and I've gotten shit about this over the years doing this show where I say like, there's a lot of journalists that I, that don't hold weight anymore, that I'm sure are very well-intentioned people. They have the credentials, they have the schooling, they have the training, but they, they lose

credibility because they're so unwilling to sway opinion or go against the main narrative. And I, and I don't see like for me, opinion or go against the main narrative. And I don't see, like for me, like I'm in the entertainment business. I'm looking for people, like these, the people that are unable to do that, I don't think there's longevity in a career like that. I have to ask the godfather of interviewers, what makes an amazing interviewer?

What are the tips and the tricks? And I'm asking you- Number one is listening. Okay. And actually I can tell immediately you're both great listeners because you- Oh! I don't tell you why, but you're a greater listener. Pull that clip.

The reason I say that, you've got, like I would have, you have your, you know, your sort of how you wanted the interview to play out. You've got your cars, you have in your head, well, we've got this I would have, you have your, you know, your sort of how you wanted the interview to play out. You've got your cars, you having your head. Well, we've got this amount of time. We're going to be going through these areas in this order. Right. And I do the same, but when I've just gone completely off tangent, like right off the top, I talked about Warren Buffett, rather than sort of cut me off

and go back to your list, because you had that as your idea of how the interview would play out, you ran with Warren Buffett and we had a great chat about Warren Buffett. That to me is the mark of good interviewers, right? Because you've got to be able to just throw it all out and go, I've done interviews sometimes where I had a whole lot of questions and I've only asked one and they've taken me down a completely different road. And rather than try and bring them back to my set questions, I've just gone with where they wanted

to go, right? And it's much more interesting, really the art of a great conversation. Joe Rogan hardly ever uses notes or anything, or questions or anything. He just, he chats for three hours, right? And I think that sometimes just having a conversation, particularly for a younger audience now, they find that more interesting. The more raw and real and unscripted, uncensored, if you like, it can feel the better. You know, in a way, would we have had any different conversation if I took your cards away now? If you think about it.

No. In other words, you've hardly looked at them. I don't think so. I know they're there. Well, you're pretty easy to talk on a mic with. Yes, yes, I know that, but I know some people aren't. So there are harder, sometimes it's hard. Yeah.

Do you know what these cards are for? Honestly, maybe you feel the same thing. These cards are for people who don't give good interview. Yeah. They're a comfort blanket when that, when you're, when you got a hard interview, you know, sometimes you're doing Robert De Niro, right?

If you've ever been to Robert De Niro, it is like pulling teeth. I don't know why he does interviews. Honestly, I don't cause I think he's such a brilliant actor and he's been in some of my favorite ever movies But my god, man, he is tortured to interview So you could have a hundred questions and you'd still be asking the first one 18 different times because he would just be Mumbling and grunting and obviously didn't want to be there. I once interviewed, I'll tell you, I do once was great. Michael Phelps, the superstar swimmer.

And it was funny. I was, I was in Atlanta just before the 2012 London Olympics and he had 18 gold medals was about to go over 21. So he had three more goals to win. And it would make him by far the greatest winner of Olympic gold medals in the history of Olympic. And I interviewed all the other Simone bars, all these other big stars, and they all were so happy to be on CNN because their families were going to watch this

and they were on CNN. It was like a great thing. And so they're all really nice to me and really excited. And then Phelps turns up in his, in his tracksuit yawning is the last one. Yeah. I was doing them all and taping them to run when the Olympics started. So it was like a whole day of it. And I was tired too.

I wouldn't day yawn in front of these athletes. He turns up, he's yawning. He's bored looking. He sort of shakes my hammer. Doesn't really care. It doesn't give a damn that I've come all the way from New York. So I said to him, you know, before we got on cameras, you don't want to do this. Really?

Do you said not really. I said, why are you doing it? I have to, it's good contract. I went, I get it. I said, how can I make it more interesting? I mean, be honest. You went, just ask me something. I haven't been asked a hundred times at all.

I asked, I got it. Got it. So he sat down and I said, Michael Phelps, I said, um, how many times have you been properly in love in your life? You were what? And then I had it and he was like, he gave me a really good answer. Actually. And then we got into such a great, I just threw the cars away.

I went, I'm just going to play this a totally different way. And I always remember something you told me. I said, look, what I've been to be all these great athletes, good. You saw your own swimming team. What makes you so great? What makes you so much better than all of them put together? And he went, why don't you go back and ask them all the same question. Go back and ask them, have they ever gone five consecutive years

without a single day off training 365 a year for five years. And when I asked him, I said, wow, really? It went Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, girlfriend's birthday, funerals, weddings, no days off. He said if you want to be the best of the best, the greatest, that's what it takes and it's enormous sacrifice and I worked out in my head the others all did six days maximum, the swimmers, the other athletes and so on. They all had a rest day.

So imagine if you're Michael Phelps, then getting on to the side of the pool and you're about to dive in and you look left and you look right and you realize in the four year training cycle, you've done 52 more days a year than any of your competitors. And he said it was like six hours, half in the pool, half out. So as you dive in, you know, you've done 208 extra days training than they have and you were already the best swimmer in the world. They are dead before they hit the water. And that's what it takes.

And I had the same conversation about that with Cristiano Ronaldo, the football player, and his eyes lit up when he heard that. He said, that's exactly it. I had the same conversation about that with Christiano Ronaldo, the football player, and he's eyes lit up when he heard that. He said, that's exactly it. So if you have a day off training, the next day is a little bit tougher, a little bit harder. He said, you have to keep pound, pound, pound, pound, pound. I think that's like what Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan said. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, exact examples, exactly the same.

Kobe would get out of bed at three in the morning and go training. These guys are on a different mentality. You know, it's like, uh, you can have all the skill in the world. There have been wonderfully skillful athletes, sportsmen, whatever, but if they don't have that, they don't have that killer ruthless mentality to push themselves when no one's watching and never're never gonna be the greats. Well, now I have to ask you, how many times have you been properly in love?

Twice, with Arsenal Football Club and the England cricket team. Oh, come on! Michael's answer better be one. Of course, you can only say one. Let me think, I had a lot. No, I think these questions are best avoided if you're the interviewer.

I'm always surprised when people answer, but they do. As I used to ask people on, uh, when I did GQ interviews for British GQ, I used to, in the middle of the interview out of nowhere with no warning, I used to say, by the way, are you good in bed? And it used to go, whoa, what? Do you have a person interviewing you? To the person that was interviewing you? No, the person I was interviewing. And some of them would like, you know, they'd be like, embarrassed or whatever.

And some would be like, I think it was Trump who just went, I'm not good. I'm great. Of course he's not good! That's amazing. And it was that laughing. And it was like, it was quite a revealing question about how people ask you. But the honest truth is no man should answer questions like that. Oh, you should take the British gentleman route that you just don't talk about such matters. Does everyone in this room think they're good in bed?

Raise your hand if you don't think you're good in bed. Well, Taylor, our producer is only 30 seconds. But that really? Yeah. I've never had any girls complain though. Uh, they haven't had a chance to complain. I know all of your ex-girlfriends. That is total bullshit. Every ex-girlfriend has complained that it was only 30 seconds. I always remember there was a football manager who said to me once about kiss and tells in

tabloids where some woman went to the papers and gave an account of your night with them. And he said, you know, the truth is, they said you were hung like a horse and went like a steam train. No complaints. And I said, I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain.

I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain.

I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to complain. the papers and gave an account of your night with them. And he said, you know, the truth is that if you, they said, they said you were hung like a horse and went like a steam train, no complaints went into the editor's office. They said you were tiny and lasted 30 seconds. You'd be getting your lawyer straight onto them. You're fucked. I don't know, Taylor.

I don't know. I call you tiny Taylor for nothing in this town. What are some high performer things that you do to be so good in your game? I get up very early. What time? I think early birds catch the worm. Okay. I'm in LA 430.

What are you doing at 430? I always think about this. It's dark out. Reading. Okay. I'm a massive consumer of information. Yes. So first I'll read all the papers online.

Then I'll turn on the news. Which ones do you read? Yeah. I'm so fascinated with how you consume your content. Which are the consistent ones you go to? New York Post, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, a couple of the British papers, the London Times, the Daily Mail, both US and UK. Online or actually you're reading the paper?

No, online. If I'm in the UK, I still get a few papers. The Sun, I'll get the Mail, I'll get the Times. Delivered, because I like that feeling. I used to edit newspapers when it was a printed paper. But the truth is, again, looking at my sons, none of them do that. One works for the Daily Mail as a sports journalist,

but he doesn't read the paper. He reads everything online, because he's a digital journalist for them. So I just think it again, it's a bit like vinyl records and digital music. Right. I mean, I remember when I grew up, my dad had a big vinyl record collection. And actually now we occasionally will play them because it sounds so nice. The scratchy vinyl, but actually when I, the other day showed him how Spotify

works, I was like that, just give me a song, any song you like. And he chose some weird thing from the 50s that he just never imagined he'd ever hear again, I went to watch this immediately play. And he made him quite emotional because he couldn't believe the speed that I'd located this thing in to find the vinyl version of that would be almost impossible. So I said, that, you know, every, every song that's ever been played is now just available at the Quikware. How old is your father?

He's 83. Is he so proud of you? Yeah. Yeah. It's probably a trip. But not as proud as I am of my parents and what they've done in their lives. You know, I don't judge pride in success based on either job achievement or money you've made or possessions you have

It's actually the best the best description and my dad could absolutely Wins by this account the best description I've had about what real successes was an American billionaire. I saw on tiktok recently Do you look at tiktok? He said the real definition of success is when your Adult children still want to hang out with you. I saw that too, that's a great clip. And it's just as simple as that because if they don't you've been a shit parent and if you've been a shit parent what's the point being alive? What have you achieved?

So you've been good at making music or movies or business, who cares? If your kids hate you, who cares? So I think that that's to's to me, the yardstick. You know, my mother's been an unbelievable, she's a very gifted artist, painter, and many other things. But ultimately, the greatest success she's had in life is producing four children who've all had many children who are now starting to have their own children. And when we all get together, there may be like a hundred of us. And it's all because of my mom and my dad.

You know, it's my childhood. Like, how did they, well, my parents run a country pub, which was fantastic. I mean, a pub in a little village in the south of England. So fine. Oh, fantastic. The only downside was I remember when I was about six or seven, coming home from a letter from the headmistress saying that she was increasingly

concerned that I smelled a beer when I arrived at school, age six. And hinting, was it down to my alcohol problem? Well, no, I was six. I was doing the bottling up. So the bottling up would be when everyone came in the pub all night, they'd obviously drink a lot of the bottles of beer and other drinks and so on. And then in the cellar, you'd go down in the morning and you would replenish all the empties with new, with new bottles.

That was called bottling up. And if you did it, you'd spend a lot of time around to beer barrels and the seller, you'd stink a beer. I would do it for 50 cents, but it was great because the great thing about a pub is it's completely egalitarian. So you'd have the, you'd have the Lord of the Manor and you'd have the local carpenter, right? And once they got in the pub, they were have the Lord of the Manor and you'd have the local carpenter. Right.

And, but once they got in the pub, they were all the same. There was no hierarchy. Nobody was more important than anybody else. And so my parents run a pub, both sets of grandparents ran pubs. So the pub culture was in, I owned a pub in London for a while and I loved it because it is just a place where it doesn't matter who you are. So I'm going to say you can stand your around and buy around the drinks and be entertaining, then you're all equal.

I go to my local pub in my village, remove villages. I go down with three three pubs and an Indian restaurant in this little village. You imagine it's like Utopia and a cricket pitch. It's like perfect. And I go in that pub and everyone knows there's 1500 people or something in my village. Most of them I grew up with for 60 years. And I go in there and they all know me and it's the same old jokes, the same old people. It's the same old stuff, but it feels like an extended family.

It's fantastic. That's so cool. And it's just the ultimate. And I always say when people get fired, it's always interesting. When I got fired from various jobs, I just got straight in my car and drove down to my pub and then all my mates would be waiting. They give me a slow hand clap. But you've done it again.

You're chump. You know, I'll be front page news or whatever it was. And then it was like, get the get the beers. It will say no more. You know, 10 beers later, we're all singing, dancing. He gives a shit. There are people who when that happens to them, they have nothing else. They have no hinterland.

They have no they have no village to support them. They have no big family to support them because they've alienated them all. They've never put any effort into friends or family or anything. They've only put effort into themselves, making money, getting up the corporate ladder, and then they find out when it's gone, none of that matters. Nobody cares. Yeah. I could lose everything tomorrow and I still have my mates and my family, which

should be worth more than any material things I could have. This is the first time we've obviously met you, but I was looking at you and your work and the things and just like doing our diligence and research. And I was saying what I said to Lauren, I said, this looks like a guy that has fun and enjoys life. Yes. You need a lot of successful people that that's not what you say.

You know what I mean? Like you've got my grandmother was like a rock of our families. So she amazing woman, one of four sisters who all lived to their mid 90s. lot of successful people that that's not what you say. You know what I mean? Like you've got my grandmother was like a rock of our families. So she amazing woman, one of four sisters who will live to their mid nineties. And she had a real rollercoaster life, great highs, great lows and so on. And she used to have this saying that one day you're the cock of the walk and the next year a feather duster and never forget it. And whenever I signed a big deal or a big job became an editor, she'd send

a car congressional to me and in in the corner she would have drawn the cock of the walk and the feather duster. Never forget. And it was such a brilliant mantra to have in life. Never forget in the good times that you're only one bad day away from being a feather duster again. But also when you're the feather duster again, never forget you could be cock of the walk again. You know, you talk about what, what mantra I would have for people is I saw Rory McIlroy win the golf friend. I love golf and he's for 10 years hadn't won a major tournament and this was becoming this enormous burden.

As a young kid he won four majors and was the biggest superstar in golf. Then he just stopped winning the majors. He won everything else but this was hanging like a sword of Damocles over his shoulders it was killing him and i know rory well is killing him and he finally it nearly blew it on sunday at the masters he nearly blew it and then he just managed to hang on and he won the playoff hole with a brilliant shot in the partner was great and it all burst out he was weeping and was, but afterwards I really watched him carefully. He said, you know, like I said to my daughter, you just never give up, never stop dreaming and never give up. And I think that's that old Churchillian thing too. And my favorite speech I was doing

with my sons is the one from the Rocky Balboa, the sixth movie, the franchise. The sixth? Yeah. Number six? Yeah. It's called Rocky Balboa. And it's one where he's got this son, he's not grown up, he's a spoiled brat, hates being Rocky's son. It feels like the whole world's against him. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And eventually Rocky has it out with him in the street. He says, life is tough.

Life will beat you down if you let it. Right. It's not about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. I completely agree. And I actually posted that speech. You should have the sixth or the fifth.

Yeah, the fifth I'll mention would be awful. So you've got the first one, first one won the Oscar and was a brilliant movie. The second one was a great sequel. The third one was Mr. T, fourth one was Dolph Lundgren, the Russian. Yeah. Five was Tommy, whatever his name was. I think he's right Michael.

Which is a shocking, terrible film. And then you get the redemption film 20 years later. Oh, that's what he knows is Rocky. That's Creed. Oh, that's Creed. That's what I'm, okay. Number six is Rocky Balboa, which was the sixth movie, but it was made 20 years after the fifth, which was a total turkey.

And we always said to slice to learn, you cannot leave the franchise with that turkey of a fifth film. You've got to come back. And he did. And he made a brilliant film with the sixth. Then he handed the baton to Creed, who was Apollo Creed's son. You don't want to get me on rock. I realized that quickly.

I was going to pivot back to the other than cricket. Rocky is my, who wants to be a millionaire category. Before you go, you have to tell us what you would infuse into our generation. What does our generation need more of when it comes to work ethic? Self confidence. Okay. Life is all about self confidence. We live in a generation. There's this brilliant book by Jonathan Haidt, which is about 2010 when phones became smartphones, young people's brains start getting scrambled. I would equate it, when I was young, there were three television networks in the UK and there were national newspapers, there was no internet, no phones, no email, no text, nothing. So you only got your information from the news channel which might be once a day, twice a day for half an hour or you got it from the newspapers. So when there was a war you got quite sanitized coverage of what was going on. Now look at what's happening in Gaza, what's looking happy

in Ukraine, look at what is on our phone all day long. That's just one example of the constant horrific stuff that young brains are getting bombarded with all day long. This is not healthy for them. Thought to Dr. Phil about this. It's like it's a very corrosive thing of negative dopamine, constantly rushing. Then you add the FOMO, seeing what all their friends and people are up to that they're not doing.

You put it all together, it's scrambling their brains and you've got an anxiety epidemic of young people around the world. This is nothing exclusive to America. And what I think the most important thing you can sit in people is, is self-confidence. Don't be afraid to fail. Do try stuff. Be personally courageous, push yourself. Take risks. Yeah, but don't worry about what people are going to say.

Don't worry about whether it'll work or not. Test yourself, push yourself, but back yourself. Ultimately, the reason I'm still able to do what I'm doing at a high level of success, despite having some big downturns in my life and career, many times is my ability to bounce back and to focus on moving forward. Like Rocky Balboa told his son, it's not about getting hit down. Everyone's going to get hit down. You're going to have shit happen to you.

You're going to lose loved ones. You're going to lose jobs you like. You're going to crash your car. You're going to stuff's going to happen. It's life. It's how you deal with that and how you respond. If you let it beat you down, that's your life. Right. If you let it fuel you to keep driving forward, you're going to have a great life. You've got to back yourself. And in the end, don't wait for other people. You you know this is my big problem with schools are where they modicoddle people now right it's so

wrong participation prizes were the greatest evil of this generation you know why the moment you tell people if you come last you win where's the motivation the finish life and what you think happens in the real world when they come out of school and they come last at work? Would you think they get a prize? No, they get fired. Right. So why don't we instill that mentality at school?

If you come last, okay. Did you try your best? If you tried your best, you just happened to be hopeless. I was a terrible athlete. I was a great cricketer. It's one of the best cricketers, 12, 13 in the country in the UK. But I was a terrible athlete. My brothers were brilliant athletes. My army brother in particular, fantastic sprinter, but they were both really good.

But I used to always win the non-finalist race. God, I was proud of that. That was for the ones who weren't athletic. You'd all be put together like a bunch of leopards in a colony and you'd be told to go but I was determined to win the non-finalist race and I used to in other words you know I always say to my kids you're not going to be great at everything you know you're just not so find the things you're good at and make the most of that and if you're not good at it at least put a shift in when I watched them play sport I didn't mind them losing. God, if they didn't try hard enough and lost I would go nuts. But if they put 100% effort in and came up short there's no shame in that whatsoever. But don't celebrate losing. Don't celebrate failure. Learn from it.

Adapt. Be better. Improve. Move on, back yourself to do better next time. But don't sit there getting the champagne out when you come last in a race or congratulate yourself on passing a driving test at the 18th attempt, because that means he fucked it up 17 times, which means you shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a public road, a.k.a. me. I didn't want to say names, but I had heard rumors. But you know what I mean? I just think honestly, it's about backing yourself. Too many young people do not back themselves.

They are riddled with doubt. They're riddled with anxiety. They don't want to take chances because they're worried about failure and about being mocked and all rest of it. I'm more surprised because they're not exposed to any failure when they're being educated. Everything is a success. Everyone's winning all the time.

The real world is not like that. It's tough. You know, you should be on the other end of the mic more. What, being interviewed? Yeah. Yeah. It's really interesting for me to listen to you as the interviewee. I don't know. I feel like there's a show that like there's something like... Well, bear in mind how many people I've interviewed. So where I've gleaned my worldview. When you've sat down with people like Cristiano Ronaldo, I mean even Donald Trump actually, he has an unshakable self-belief and self-confidence, the like of which I have never seen. He's got the thinnest skin in the world.

He reacts to absolutely everything, but he also has the thickest skin in the world. He can soak up crap that would sink any other public figure in 10 seconds. So there's a lot to be learned from that. The thick skin, right? Just let it all just fly. I always say short of death or terminal illness, nothing is that bad. You might think it is in the moment, but nothing is that bad.

It's down to you. Down to you. So yeah, I like being interviewed because I can pass on a lot of the stuff that I've gleaned, which has formulated my views from really successful people, but the ones that I appreciate and really respect are the ones who are very successful and happy, content with themselves. That's that's the trick. You know, when I went to see Christiano, he's a good friend of mine,

and he's the most followed person on Instagram in the world by miles. I want to see him in Saudi Arabia, where he now plays football. And I went to his house and we just hung out for a couple of hours. And he had his girlfriend with him and their four kids. He was so happy, just content. And he's the best. I think he's the best to ever play soccer as you terribly call it over here, but football, as we call it, the real football, the one with a circular ball.

We just had a really nice chat and he was just so happy with himself. It's just completely confident in himself. He plays that way. He's like it off the pitch. You know, I'd love to do something with him one day, just about that, about how you instill that in himself. He plays that way, he's like it off the pitch. You know, I'd love to do something with him one day, just about that, about how you instill that in people. Because it's the most important asset you can give people in life. So many people hold back from achieving things because they're just worried about failing. Don't worry about it. I've failed multiple times. Michael Jordan talked about the number of times he

missed three pointers to win matches, right? Endlessly missed them. But because he kept practicing again and again and again, when it really, really mattered, he nailed them. And that's because all those guys knew you have to work hard on everybody else. You have to work hard on everybody else. You have to treat failure as fuel. You've got to absolutely back yourself a hundred percent all the time. Don't let anyone tell you what you are. Just back yourself. You know, it's funny too, when you have success, when you like, as you grow older and you look back, at least for me, and I don't know for you guys, but I mostly look back fondly on the bad times.

Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like I mostly look back fondly on the bad times. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like I look at those moments as the moments like, oh, that was a, like you're getting with the people that are support systems, you're working through issues that you're like one years old though. You still have a long way to go. But the point is, is like, you're a fetus. You also do find out who your friends are and it's a cliche, but it's a

really important cliche to remember. You will remember the ones that run towards you in times of trouble and the ones who disappear. It's happened to me a few times. It's great because it saves you money on the Christmas card list. It's an inventory. Just immediately chop them off. Yeah. But you just get to learn. I think sometimes it's very surprising.

It's not always the people you think, both ways. People you really thought were great, loyal people, disappear or screw you in the back and other people you never really thought were great loyal people disappear or screw you in the back and other people you never really thought cared that much about you step up and they're there for you. They're the ones you want to have. I always tell my kids the best friends you ever have they're the ones that walk towards you when the shits flying. Just go to the pub. Yeah. What's your favorite cigar before you go? Monte Cristo number two. Okay. I mean that's not even a debate. Oh, and you want to, if you want to have the dream, it is, uh, you want to have a

Monte Cristo number two, you want to have a nice bottle of Chateau Margot 82 Chateau Latour 61, Mouton Ross child 45. Got to be French. My dad gave me two great bits of advice. He's only ever bothered with two. One was, was always be polite to police officers. Great advice. Great advice.

You'll never win an argument with a police officer. And secondly, always buy the best French wine you can afford. Right. If it doesn't matter what your range is, you know, you can buy great French wine for $10, right? Or you can buy it for $10,000, but whatever your range that you can afford is by the best French wine to the limit that you can afford. What's like the bottle I should have in the delivery room that Michael should buy me? range that you can afford is by the best French wine to the limit that you can afford.

What's like the bottle I should have in the delivery room that Michael should buy me? 1961 Chateau Littor. When I got the Larry King gig, my late great manager John, who I mentioned earlier, would have been 65 yesterday. I said to him, he was a big wine guy, I said, if you get this job for me, if you get Larry King replaced by a British guy half half his age, you know, who should have been run out of town years ago. I said, this would be fantastic.

I'll get you the best bottle of wine ever made. And we'll drink in a cup restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire. Cause I was, I was living there at the time. He did the deal. The contract was going to be faxed due to the fax during the meal. And I had the 61 Latorre sourced it through Wally's wine in Beverly Hills.

Yeah, that's great. They have good sandwiches there too. Great sandwiches, great place. Wally's they brought the thing and I had it all to count it. Where did it go? And I said, this is the 61 Latorre. It's the greatest bottle of wine ever made in my humble estimation. And we sat there for an hour, just dripping it slowly, drinking it.

It was magic. And that was just an example of the best French wine at that moment I could afford because John had just landed me this four year contract at CNN and you've got to celebrate the good times right in other words you talk about the bad times we've all had them and they're awful but you learn a lot from the fact they are more important moments I think about how you lead your life but also when the good times come get out out and party. Enjoy it. He told you he has fun. He enjoys life. Get the Monte Cristos out. Get the fine wine out. Have fun.

Get on, go and have whatever you can afford in life. Go and enjoy it. Everyone can afford to have fun. You can get to a park with a bottle of wine with five mates and have a great time. But enjoy, celebrate the good times. My kids know we celebrate two things. When I land a great deal or do a great interview or whatever it may be, we celebrate and when I get fired or something terrible happens, we go and celebrate. We celebrate them both. So you're just kind of celebrating all the time. We treat the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with equanimity.

In other words, neither is going to be the end of your life. Right. The great deal isn't going to be the best thing that ever happens to you. And the worst getting fired won't be the worst thing that happens to you. Death and terminal illness. They're the two, I had a great friend of mine, one of my best friends, entire world from my village. And we were really close and he suddenly out of mine, one of my best friends, the entire world from my village. And we were really close.

And he suddenly out of nowhere, a year and a half ago got terminal brain cancer, a glioblastoma. And there was, there was never any hope that he could last more than 18 months. It's the most aggressive, awful form of brain cancer, but he never once felt any self-pity whatsoever. Even though he was 57 years old and he knew that was going to be the end of his life. former brain cancer but he never once felt any self-pity whatsoever even though he was 57 years old and he knew that was going to be the end of his life and he had a wretched awful last few months but again he never lost his humor he never lost his all he wanted to do was be around his mates we went down to our annual golf trip that I mentioned he came down he could barely walk it's in a

wheelchair he couldn't play golf he tried but he couldn't do it. But just sitting there with his mates was actually what he really wanted to do. And in the end, it wouldn't have mattered how much money he had, or how many possessions he had, or how many jobs he'd been fired from, or one or anything. None of that mattered. All that mattered was he was with his mates. And actually, that's what matters, mates and family, and fine wine matters. Mates and family. And fine wine and Monte Cristo number twos. I'm going to try a Monte Cristo number two. A little puff after.

You've got to get them from a good cigar maker where they're fresh or have been well humored. I want all this ready to go. They always taste horrible. But if they're well kept, slightly moist, mwah. Some girls want sushi in the hospital. I want to money. Christo, Christian, I'm a little 61.

He can afford it. He's a successful. Don't be cheap. I've seen I've seen the ways around town. Where can everyone find you? Not that they don't already follow you, but where can everyone find your show? Everything you're doing your book.

What's the one with Princess Diana? Where can everyone find all this? Well, I wrote a book called The Insider, which was the number one bestseller. You can get that on Amazon. It's a fan. That's a fantastic book is that has all the Diana stories and everything else. I did them as I did four volumes of diaries.

So they're all very entertaining. I would argue I've got a book coming out in October called woke is dead. Uh, when that comes out, you come back on. Yeah. Cause I think it's a really interesting thing is what you're seeing there is the death of woke is actually being orchestrated right now by a lot of people in the Democrat Party here who recognize that some of that more ridiculous stuff. They're trying to get off the tracks of that.

Like Gavin Newsom is suddenly talking about why you should preserve women's sport for women and so on. By the way, on him, I have been hyper critical of him because again, grew here. Yeah. You know, I think there's, there's a lot of issues there, but I do think one of the smartest things he's done is to start doing this kind of format and medium sit down with conservatives because it's going to move him and make him not look like such a loony bird that's so far out of touch with people. Um, and when I said that to people that don't agree with him and I've been

critical of him, they were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, because they, they're so intransigent. I think it's great what he's doing. Look, he wants to be president. You're not going to be president anymore. If you're woke left, you know, you won't be president for extreme right. Right. Nobody gets elected from those positions ever anywhere in the world.

I mean, not anywhere in the world, but certainly not in the UK. It's certainly not in the U S it's just not going to happen. Yeah, I think you, I mean it's funny whenever people, oh the world's so dang, and I'm like just walk around and talk to normal people in the world. Yes, 80% of people are not on social media, remember that. So Piers Morgan uncensored on YouTube. Where can we find your book though, can we pre-order it? You can pre-order it on Amazon.

Woke is Dead. Simultaneous launch in the week, UK and US in October. But yeah, but if you haven't, if you've ever watched Uncensored, come and watch it. It'll expand your mind. Right? That's all I want people to do. I want people to hear all sides of debates from smart people who have a different view of the same set of facts.

Just come and watch it and make your own mind up. The intro, it says love him or hate him. You know his name. Thanks for coming on the show. Thank you, Piers. I remember when Amazon are looking for the next James Bond. Remember, it's not a massive leap from Piers Brosnan to Piers Morgan. I'm just putting that out there.

If Jeff Bezos is watching, I've got the accent. I've got the Aston Martin literally at my house. I'm putting it out there that you're going to be a character. I like my martini shake and not stirred. All right. Women find me devilishly attractive. Oh, wow. And I'm a steely eyed dealer of death.

I mean, you add it all up and I'm starting Monday. Right. So one of our best friends, I was he he was asking if he's coming on the podcast. I said, Pierce Morgan. He goes, no way. James. I actually, I'll end with one little anecdote about that. Cause it is funny when I did my first book, I wasn't on television.

I was running a newspaper, but it had been a big hit and Harrods in London, the big department store said they could put on a signing. I was like, great. So they actually put me in a carriage, horse drawn carriage down Knightsbridge, the main thoroughfare of central London, pulled up around the back of Harrods where a Scottish piper piped me up to the fourth floor to book department. To my astonishment, there were a thousand people. Plus I was mobbed.

I was like, Whoa, this is unbelievable. And then I heard on the Tanoy, he came over the system and on the fourth floor today, signing copies of his new autobiography is Pierce Brosnan, who was the then current James Bond. So when I get up the top, I see everybody looking at me was surrounded by the staff and they look at each other and look back at me and they suddenly do the math and go, it's not fucking Piers Brosnan, is it? It's Piers Morgan.

And then 990 left. Stop! I don't believe that. 990 left. And it was my mother, my siblings, and a couple of cousins stayed. And I will be leave that. 990 left and it was my mother, my siblings, and a couple of cousins stayed and I will be forever grateful. You talk about when you need your family most. Try a book signing when 990 out of a thousand leave the moment they

hear who you really are and that you're not James Bond. So I would see getting the Bond gig as coming full circle, the redemption arc. I still like you as a donkey in a cartoon I'm just saying well glad you said in the cartoon wonder where we were going there thank you for coming on the show it's been a real pleasure anytime man