LONDON (Reuters) -Piers Morgan, the outspoken British journalist and broadcaster, has joined Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Fox News Media in a global deal, including launching a new TV show in early 2022, the company said on Thursday.
He will also join Murdoch’s tabloids The Sun and the New York Post as a columnist, and the group’s HarperCollins UK has signed the world rights for his next book, the company said.
Morgan, who previously edited Murdoch’s defunct News of the World and hosted a show on CNN, resigned from British broadcaster ITV’s breakfast show after he said in March he did not believe comments made by Prince Harry’s wife Meghan in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Morgan said he was thrilled to be returning to News Corp, where he began his media career more than 30 years ago.
“Rupert Murdoch has been a constant and fearless champion of free speech and we are going to be building something new and very exciting together,” he said.
“I want my global show to be a fearless forum for lively debate and agenda-setting interviews, and a place that celebrates the right of everyone to have an opinion, and for those opinions to be vigorously examined and challenged.
“I’m going home and we’re going to have some fun.”
Murdoch said Morgan was “the broadcaster every channel wants but is too afraid to hire”.
“Piers is a brilliant presenter, a talented journalist and says what people are thinking and feeling,” he said in a statement.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young and Michael Holden)
