'DESPICABLE'
Good Morning Britain’s Adil Ray takes thinly-veiled swipe at Piers Morgan in ‘mental health’ jibe
GOOD Morning Britain's Adil Ray appeared to aim a thinly-veiled dig at Piers Morgan today in a swipe about mental health.
The 47-year-old star made the off-the-cuff remark to co-host Ranvir Singh as they reported on tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrawing from press conferences due to the toll they take on her mental health.
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The 23-year-old champ said she has suffered from depression since her infamous 2018 US Open final win over Serena Williams, and dramatically quit the French Open after refusing to end her media boycott.
Discussing the news on GMB, Adil said: "The debate has come once again [because of] our attitude to mental health, and I just find it despicable how some people can just trash somebody when they say they have mental health issues."
The breakfast show then cut to a local news report.
Piers was among Naomi's critics yesterday, branding her "an arrogant spoiled brat" as he called into question the validity of her mental health issues.
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The outspoken TV favourite famously quit his role on Good Morning Britain after refusing to apologise for similar comments made about Meghan Markle's mental health.
He accused the Duchess of Sussex of lying about being suicidal during her and Prince Harry's bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview in March.
And at the weekend, Piers told The Sun that young people need to toughen up and stop claiming they have mental health issues in an exclusive interview.
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He insisted that while he is incredibly sympathetic to those genuinely suffering, many people feign mental illness over things that are "just life".
Piers ranted at the time: “I strongly believe those who need help should get help. What I don’t believe is that 37 million people in this country are mentally ill, which is what reports are saying.
"We are encouraging a generation of young people to think that normal life stuff is actually mental illness.
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"That grief, which everyone has to go through, or anxiety - which everyone gets at some stage over exams or boyfriends or girlfriends, or taking your driving test - this is normal life stuff."
Piers went on: "Kids need to be more mentally strong and resilient about normal life stuff. And this will allow more time and money to go into helping people with genuine mental illness.
"I have a real issue with the way the mental health issue is being conducted - the numbers go up every year. Nearly every young person has been led to believe they’ve got a mental illness.
"The more we talk about it, the more mental health cases we get. And I certainly don’t like it as an excuse to make people lose their jobs because someone has been telling porky pies…"
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