The bless-ed times of a former tabloid editor

Piers Morgan is the man everyone loves to hate.

The former Mirror newspaper editor with newfound television status is booed by audiences who call him the 'Nasty' judge on Britain's Got Talent – currently showing in the UK and attracting worldwide attention on Youtube.com – as well as America's Got Talent, which recently showed on MBC4. Ex-newspaper colleagues and celebrities he has crossed, meanwhile, snipe at him in their columns.

Yet it is like water off a duck's back for Morgan, who has never lacked confidence, arrogance or ambition.

"They all call me a fat, talentless man, but I'm not that bad. I mean, do I look fat to you?" he asks, in mock horror, breathing in hard so his small paunch disappears.

"I have to put up with it because it's all my old colleagues on the papers – most of the people I either hired or fired – and then the only possible recourse they now have to my burgeoning global career is to call me fat. I would do the same if I was them."

One columnist described him as 'a walking, talking ad for Domino's Pizza' and the jibes of 'Doughnut Boy' have prompted him to visit the gym more regularly. He has a personal trainer both in his hometown of London and in LA, where he spends four months of the year. He's also got his teeth whitened.

He has an opinion on everything from Barack Obama (loves him) to British TV presenter Jonathan Ross (hates him) and relishes stirring things up.

Of Ross he says: "I think he's probably a spent force. He should have been fired over the Andrew Sachs thing but because he stayed there a lot of people at the BBC aren't happy and he's lost his act, which was based on being quite offensive and lewd to people and now he can't do it. He's become more and more boring and his ratings are reflecting that."

You want to dislike Morgan, 44, but he has this great ability to laugh at himself and you find yourself laughing too. While some remain hostile – like Jeremy Clarkson, who famously hit him at the 2004 British Press Awards for publishing pictures of Clarkson kissing a woman who wasn't his wife – many more have forgiven him for his tabloid tales.

These include actress Amanda Holden, his fellow judge on Britain's Got Talent, whose affair with Neil Morrissey while she was still married to Les Dennis was exclusively revealed in the Mirror, under his editorship.

"I said to her, 'I did you a favour, you could still be married to Les Dennis if it wasn't for me'."

However smug Morgan is, his ex-colleagues must be green with envy at his seamless move from newspapers to television chat shows and talent contests. Not to mention the travel opportunities (Morgan has reportedly been invited over to Dubai more than international pop stars, for instance). And he still manages to write columns and books too.

His latest tome, God Bless America, is his third volume of diaries, largely charting his adventures stateside.

"When I grew up I wanted to be like David Frost, Alan Whicker and Michael Parkinson. So to be able to do similar stuff to what they used to do is great."

He's quick to point out that the ratings for his latest chat show series showing in the UK, Piers Morgan's Life Stories, have been around 70 per cent higher than Jonathan Ross's. "A proper chat show should be about 'my life story', where you get under the skin of people and talk about their lives."

Another 12 shows are on the cards over the next year, with his pal Simon Cowell already tentatively agreeing to appear. He'd also like to secure Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar, Dame Helen Mirren and comedian Paul O'Grady.

In the meantime, he has a special, When Piers Met Sir Cliff, coming out in the summer, where he meets the legend himself, Cliff Richard.

His shows are more tabloid than those of Parkinson, but Morgan would love to interview the heavyweights too, including Barack Obama.

"I don't think it's unachievable, Obama's going to have to do a big British interview soon," he says in typical bullish fashion.

It seems an age since Morgan was sacked from the Mirror in 2004 for publishing fake photos – which he believed to be genuine – of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

He is asked all the time whether he would ever return to newspapers.

"I'd never say never because I love newspapers, but it's never going to be the same. Now, I really enjoy the life I have. The idea of going back to a grim, East End tower block and working 16 hours a day just to know you are going to lose five or 10 per cent of your sales every year doesn't appeal."

He had his big television break when Simon Cowell asked him to become a judge on America's Got Talent alongside David Hasselhoff and Sharon Osbourne, and later on Britain's Got Talent with Cowell and Holden – and has not looked back. His LA base is the Beverly Wilshire hotel, as featured in Pretty Woman, and Morgan boasts that the staff treat him like Richard Gere. His old newspaper colleagues must be seething.

He misses the buzz of the newsroom but says that editing newspapers is dehumanising. One of his least proud moments was being disappointed when Concorde crashed and there were no celebrities on the plane.

"You become totally immune to normal human reaction. Even now, when a big event happens, I don't have the same emotional reaction because I think of it as a story."

He cannot abide hypocritical celebrities – he includes Hugh Grant and Geri Halliwell – who embrace all the lavish trappings of fame, selling their most personal moments to the highest bidder, then moan about the media prying into their life.

Yet ask him about his own private life and he won't go there.

Divorced last year from his wife Marion, whom he reportedly left when she was pregnant with their third child, Morgan refuses to discuss how he felt when the divorce came through.

"I don't really talk about this kind of thing, I don't have to. I'm happy to ask anybody any question but they don't have to answer it.

"Personally, I can't think of anything more gut-wrenching than picking up a magazine and seeing 'My divorce hell' – especially when you've got kids."

He and Marion have remained friends and he speaks to his three sons – Spencer, Stanley and Bertie – virtually every day.

"The divorce process is horrific, but me and my ex get on very well. She's the mother of my three kids and we are good friends.

"I see the boys all the time. That's more important to me than any cheque. But I'm away a lot and that's one of the down sides of what I do. I'm away for four months of the year and I don't see my kids for most of that time."

He's now happily ensconced with attractive 31-year-old blonde columnist Celia Walden, daughter of former Tory minister George Walden, but remains tight-lipped about marrying again.

"Whoever gets to marry Celia will be a very lucky boy," he smiles, admitting that he hasn't yet popped the question.

He has homes in London and Sussex on the south coast, where he grew up, and often returns to his local village, meeting up with old friends and playing cricket.

"They just treat me like an idiot," he laughs.

"That's the way it should be. I've grown up with these people for 30 years and they don't want to hear about Arnold Schwarzenegger. They want to hear if I'm going to buy a round."


Britain's Got Talent: who's got your vote?

Although not showing on any television channels in the UAE, Britain's Got Talent is taking the country by storm thanks to videos of the few jaw dropping acts – and numerous dreadful ones – doing the rounds on YouTube, as well as social websites such as Facebook.

This nationwide talent search judged by Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, now in its third series, has already made stars of previous winners opera singer Paul Potts (who has sold over two million copies of his debut album in the UK alone), and street dancer George Sampson.

Here's who we think might walk away with this year's grand prize of £100,000 in the live final on May 30.

SUSAN BOYLE

One of the series' most memorable performances so far is by 47-year-old Susan Boyle, who had the last laugh when she gave an outstanding performance of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables and brought the crowd to a standing ovation. Within five days, YouTube videos of her appearance had generated more than 41 million collective views.

FLAWLESS

The urban dance act may have gone under the radar thanks to the hype surrounding Susan Boyle, but we're sure we haven't seen the end of the stunning group yet. After all, a dance act won last year. Could they make it two in a row?

SHAHEEN JAFARGHOLI

Another hot contender for the top prize comes in the form of 12-year singer Shaheen Jafargholi. Initially stopped by Simon Cowell after singing just one verse of Amy Winehouse's Valerie, Jafargholi then suggested Who's Loving You, made famous by a young Michael Jackson with the Jackson Five, and the audience approved.

Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.