Piers Morgan by Emily Herbert Read Free Book Online Page B

he’d recently been running, for barely a week had gone by without another scandal in the News Of The World setting the pace.
    â€˜If they are Tory MPs, and have been elected by preaching family values and use their wife and children in publicity photographs, they deserve to be exposed if they commit adultery,’ he declared. ‘If, say, David Mellor [the Secretary of State for National Heritage, who was forced to resign after a series of scandals], when he stood for election, had said vote for me and, oh, by the way, I’ll frequently be unfaithful to my wife during the time I’m your MP, and they still voted for him, then good luck to him. I’m not personally laying down rules – I’m just saying that the public servants paid for by us have got to be accountable. It’s not just politicians. Of course I sympathise with people like Mrs Mellor and her children, but innocent people always suffer when there’s any sort of scandal. The Financial Times might expose some crooked City con man, but no one criticises them, though there will be innocent people who suffer.’
    However, it was not just politicians and clergymen who featured in the News Of The World – just about any celebrity caught out doing what they shouldn’t have been doing did so, too. But Piers was prepared to mount a strong defence. ‘It is a different agenda with pop stars,’ he acknowledged, ‘they court newspaper publicity to sell their records, so they have to accept the bad publicity as well. You may think that’s a pretty spurious argument. Inactual fact, I’ve had pop stars’ representatives begging me to run their sex scandals.’
    Despite all this success, his hard work was beginning to take its toll, too. Piers’ marriage was to stagger on for many years to come, but now, with his eldest son Spencer still just one, he and Marion embarked on a separation. Piers himself was remarkably unforthcoming on what lay behind the move and steadfastly refused to answer questions (ironic, as he himself conceded, for an editor of the News Of The World ) and, indeed, the two were to eventually reunite. But it was the first sign that his marriage would not stay the course: pressure of work, marrying too young… it was all to add up.
    But Piers was doing so well professionally that nothing else seemed to matter. He was also well aware of the person to whom he owed everything – Kelvin MacKenzie. Indeed, he was quite fulsome in his praise, describing him as ‘inspirational’ and ‘incredible’.
    â€˜There are people in key positions around the world who are there because of him,’ he proudly declared. ‘If that’s the only thing he’s remembered for, then that’s still a hell of an achievement.’
    And he drew a lot from his old mentor in terms of management style (not least frowning on all-day drinking), but, while Kelvin could be a terrifying boss, roaring with rage at his hapless lieutenants, Piers was – if not gentle as such – a little easier to deal with. ‘I wouldn’t say anyone here is terrified of me,’ he mused. ‘People here enjoy coming to work, but they know that I expect a certainstandard and I won’t tolerate mistakes. I don’t like going out for lunch and things like that. I want to be visible so that, when someone wants a decision taken, I can make it rather than have them wait for me to come back from a freebie lunch. I’m full of respect for the staff here; they took me on as a rookie and helped me learn my trade.’
    Of course, one of the reasons why he wanted to maintain a constant presence in the office and was always careful to praise his reporters was because he was still so very young. Despite a hugely successful first year in the job, there were still doubters in the industry, to say nothing of his own staff; many had actually been passed over in favour of him and so they might