Piers Morgan Shades Larry King Just Minutes After His Death Became Public

Larry King died on Saturday morning, and Piers Morgan wasted no time taking a shot at the beloved media personality. King hosted Larry King Live on CNN for 25 years, and when he left the network in 2010, Morgan was his successor. The British media personality hosted Piers Morgan Tonight (later renamed Piers Morgan Live) from 2011 to 2014, only for CNN to cancel the show due to low ratings. It seems like Morgan still harbors a grudge for how the whole hand-off happened, based on his Saturday tweet.

King’s death was revealed by his digital network, Ora Media, at 7:45 a.m. ET. At 8:19 a.m. ET, Morgan threw a jab at the now-deceased media legend. While the former America’s Got Talent judge called King professionally “brilliant” and “masterful,” he spent most of the message airing out a personal grudge. The pair apparently “fell out” after Piers Morgan Tonight’s premiere due to King severely criticizing Morgan’s work. The Good Morning Britain presenter took King’s death to bring that up and also take a shot at his history of failed marriages.

Morgan received a load of backlash for the tweet, but he had a handful of supporters. In response to one Twitter user who praised Morgan for “honest” take, he added, “Larry hated me replacing him at CNN and never made any secret of it, which I found very sad because he was one of my heroes – but I still think he was a superb broadcaster [and] one of the all-time TV greats.”

Ora Media did not make King’s cause of death public when it revealed his passing. However, media reports in early January claimed the Larry King Now host was hospitalized for COVID-19. It is not confirmed that the disease — caused by the novel coronavirus that’s been sweeping the globe for more than a year — led to King’s death.