Piers Morgan Says He Is Willing To Go On A Diet With Plus-Size Model Tess Holliday

After admitting he needs to lose about 15 pounds himself, Piers Morgan offered to go on a diet with plus-size model Tess Holliday to help her lose weight.

The Good Morning Britain host made the remarks today on the talk show, which hosted a panel that discussed the 33-year-old model’s feature cover of Cosmo UK released in August, which the British presenter was critical of, the Daily Mail reported.

“Come on I’ll lose weight with you Tess, let’s go and do it together,” Morgan, 53, said.

Morgan previously blasted the magazine for using the plus-size model on its cover, accusing the publication of glamorizing obesity, as the Inquisitr reported at the time.

The Good Morning Britain panel was discussing the issue after Morgan admitted he was body-shamed himself after he publicly criticized the model’s body-positive message on her feature with Cosmo UK, as per the Daily Mail. As the panel noted that body-shaming is wrong regardless of the situation, Morgan defended his critics, saying he is aware he needs to lose weight, and therefore “deserved” to be fat-shamed.

His co-host Susanna Reid argued that shaming is an unproductive way of motivating overweight people to lose weight, but Morgan insisted that Holliday’s career as a model is not helping her get on track either, the Daily Mail pointed out.

“She ain’t losing it right now because people are paying her lots of money to be morbidly obese. I think I’m being kind, you may not think so but I actually think I am,” Morgan insisted.

Morgan said that at 215 pounds and 6 feet 1 inches, he is considered overweight, a responsibility he accepts fully and refuses to “con” himself into thinking that his body is healthy, he said, according to the Daily Mail.

“I think I need to lose weight, it’s a struggle, and the worst possible thing is to try and con yourself that you don’t,” he said, adding that Holliday “continues to want to be celebrated for being 5’3’and 300 lbs – I’m sorry that’s not to be celebrated.”

In the previous criticism of the Cosmo UK cover, Morgan and his supporters cited obesity figures for the U.K. in an attempt to prove his point that obesity is epidemic in the country as it strained the health care system, as per the Inquisitr report. Holliday was quick to respond.

“To everyone saying I’m a burden to the British health care system, I’m American so you don’t have to worry about my fat a**. Worry about what horrible people you are by whining about how me being on the cover of a glossy magazine impacts your small minded life,” the model said, as the Inquisitr quoted.