Piers Morgan has issued an apology to Jay-Z and Beyoncé after a guest on his Uncensored YouTube show made allegations that lawyers for the couple said were “totally false”.
Last week, the TV presenter interviewed singer Jaguar Wright about rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ recent arrest.
Wright said she had been “screaming” about Combs and Jay-Z for years.
On Tuesday, Morgan opened his show by revealing that Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s lawyers contacted him and said that Wright’s allegations were “totally false and have no basis in fact.”
“Last week I interviewed Jaguar Wright, a singer-songwriter who has made claims about Diddy for years. Those claims have received a lot of attention in the media across many platforms,” Morgan said.
“The thing about platforms, the reality of the modern world is that pretty much everyone has a platform as long as they have something to say that other people want to hear.
“That’s why we invited her [Wright] on to be interviewed. The people making these claims have an audience with or without shows like mine.”
He continued: “Well, Jaguar Wright, unexpectedly, made several serious allegations about Jay-Z and Beyoncé during that interview.
“As I said in the moment, they were not present to respond or defend themselves, but now they have.
“Their lawyers contacted us to say that those claims were totally false and have no basis in fact, and we’ve therefore complied with a legal request to cut them from the original interview.”
Morgan concluded by apologising to the music power couple.
“Editing interviews is not something we do lightly at a show called Uncensored,” he said, “but like the proverbial cries of fire in a crowded theatre, there are legal limits on us, too.
“And we apologise to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.”
Combs has been locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn since pleading not guilty on 17 September to federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, according to an unsealed indictment.