Sharon Osbourne defends ‘naughty Piers Morgan’ after Ewan McGregor feud

Osbourne said Morgan “adores women” and only makes comments to “get a reaction”
Good friends: Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan
ITV
Emma Powell25 January 2017
The Weekender

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Sharon Osbourne has defended Piers Morgan, insisting he “adores women” and only makes controversial comments to “get a reaction”.

Osbourne, 64, spoke out after Morgan branded Ewan McGregor a “paedophile-loving hypocrite” when the actor cancelled an appearance on Good Morning Britain over Morgan’s controversial views on the Women’s March.

Speaking on US panel show The Talk, Osbourne said: “He says this stuff to get a reaction. I know Piers very, very well. This is what he does. He just throws things out there to get this reaction he's getting.

“He loves the attention. Naughty Piers. I know you don’t believe what you're saying. He adores women.”

Osbourne’s co-stars were less than convinced by her defence, with Aisha Tyler branding Morgan “misogynistic”.

McGregor was scheduled to be interviewed about his new film, T2 Trainspotting, on the ITV breakfast show when he pulled out minutes before.

Explaining his reasons he tweeted: “Was going on Good Morning Britain, didn't realise @piersmorgan was host. Won't go on with him after his comments about #WomensMarch.”

Morgan scolded the actor for letting down his fans and for refusing to engage in a debate with someone who held a different viewpoint.

He called for a boycott of his films and said McGregor had "revealed himself to be a narrow-minded, stupendously self-aggrandising, anti-democratic little twerp".

Writing in his Mail Online column he went on to brand the actor a “hypocrite” for chastising his views on the Women’s March, when McGregor has worked with director Roman Polanski.

Morgan continued his attack on McGregor with a lengthy rant on Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain and said he would have “respected” the actor had he sat on the sofa and challenged his stance.

Women's marches around the world

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Morgan said: “He thought the Women’s March was a fantastic thing. I thought it was flawed and explained why. I’m certainly supportive of all women’s rights and all equality. I didn’t feel this march was very focused. It was a bit more of an anti-Trump thing.

“Putting that to one side, we should all be able to have different views. I would have respected him more if he’d walked out there, sat down and went, ‘You are are wrong about the Women’s March,’ and we could have had an adult conversation about it.

“It seems to me the whole Brexit, Trump stuff is now so extreme that no one can even raise a flag of ‘this might not be quite right’ or ‘let’s bring them together’. It’s just too much extremity about all this.”

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