Larry King’s Wife Shawn King: Piers Morgan Is A Jerk

Shawn King, the wife of iconic talkmeister Larry King, has weighed in on the feud between her husband and Piers Morgan.

“He is just kind of a jerk in my opinion. Larry didn’t say that, I did. That is how I feel; I think he is a jerk,” she asserted, in reference to what she deemed Morgan’s publicity-seeking dissing of the couple on Twitter.

Mrs. King offered that assessment of Morgan on the red carpet prior to hosting an event in Los Angeles last night for the Unstoppable Foundation, a global charity, the New York Daily News reported.

Shawn King, 55, acknowledged that in person, Piers Morgan is very friendly, but he seems to go into beast mode on social media.

“I guess he gets behind his pen or digital device and he feels that… he can say whatever he wants about anybody and criticize anybody, and that it doesn’t (hurt) anybody’s feelings. I see him hurt people’s feelings all the time.”

A former tabloid newspaper editor in the U.K., Morgan began hosting CNN’s Piers Morgan Live in January 2011 upon the retirement of Larry King and the end of his long-running talk show Larry King Live. About three years later, Piers Morgan’s show was no longer alive, with its final broadcast airing on March 28, 2014.

With chronically low ratings, Morgan had zero chance for viewership improvement in the cable news universe once Fox News successfully launched The Kelly File with Megyn Kelly in the same 9 p.m. Eastern time slot in place of Sean Hannity’s show. The Kelly File has quickly become a ratings powerhouse.

Larry King, 81, is still working, currently hosting talk shows on Hulu and RT America.

A former judge on America’s Got Talent and a past winner of Celebrity Apprentice, Morgan spent a lot of CNN airtime obsessing about the need for more gun control in the U.S.

In February of 2014, he admitted to the New York Times that the handwriting was on the wall as far as his CNN career was concerned.

“Look, I am a British guy debating American cultural issues, including guns, which has been very polarizing, and there is no doubt that there are many in the audience who are tired of me banging on about it.”

Piers Morgan usually took the liberal position on most political and social issues and had a memorable heated debate with Larry Elder about crime and sociology during the George Zimmerman trial. Since departing CNN and becoming a Daily Mail editor, Morgan’s views on politics, for whatever reason, have become less predictable.

Their different approach to handling TV guests evidently is the source of the bad blood between the two former CNN hosts, Shawn King explained.

“Here is the deal, Piers is somebody that likes to fight; He is a very combative guy — Larry never has been. Piers was upset when Larry talked about their different interviewing styles, Piers was offended. But Larry thinks Piers is a good enough guy — it is not about his personality. He said Piers interjects himself into the interview, and Larry said that is not (his) style of interviewing. That is where the fire ignited.”

Could things ever be patched up between the Larry King and Piers Morgan? “Not if I have anything to do with it,” Shawn King vowed.

[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images Entertainment]