Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid were involved in a heated clash during Tuesday’s edition of Good Morning Britain, after a disagreement about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s upcoming TV interview.

While Piers has always been a vocal critic of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Susanna has been more defensive of them, accusing her co-presenter of being “obsessed” with the royal couple during their latest row.

The GMB hosts began by discussing Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which is set to air on Sunday while Prince Philip is still in hospital.

“The question is, what’s Prince Harry going to do… if the Duke takes a turn for the worse?” Piers questioned. “What’s he going to do? Is he going to allow his whining about what a tough life he has in his LA mansion to go out on primetime TV on Sunday night?”

“I don’t think I would describe it as whining,” Susanna then said, although she agreed that the timing of the interview was unfortunate given the Duke of Edinburgh’s condition.

Blasting what he predicted would be a “nauseating” interview, Piers told Susanna: “I think it’s going to be extremely bad for this country, the way that she in particular will portray us. I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how hard Oprah goes. Will she take the gloves off with them, and ask them some tough questions?

“She’s disowned all of her family apart from one, he’s disowned most of his… you preach about compassion, you send out your checklist for International Women’s Day… why don’t you start with yourselves?

“Why don’t you, Harry, who’s never met your father-in-law… get on a plane, it’s not far now, you live an hour away, and go and see Thomas Markle? See how he is? Show him a bit of compassion. But you’ve disowned him haven’t you?”

As Susanna let out a sigh, Piers continued: “What about showing compassion to your brother? Because your brother went through the same thing that you did. I don’t see him giving endless interviews about it. And saying how tough his life is.

“Your brother stayed here in the pandemic and has done a fantastic job, frankly. He and his wife, and the other senior royals, in that pandemic. That’s called duty. You get all the baubles, the palaces, the servants, the trinkets, the first-class travel….”

“But they’ve given that up!” Susanna interjected, to which Piers pointed out the pair still hold their titles as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

“[That] is within the gift of the queen,” Susanna then pointed out. “I don’t see how you think you have more authority than the Queen in deciding whether they should keep their royal titles or not.”

The row then continued, with Susanna claiming Harry and Meghan “want to be talked about in terms which they consider more compassionate and more understanding”.

“I think that they want people to understand what they have been through,” she said, while Piers responded that “in a year of a global pandemic… I don’t care”.

“Well, hang on a minute, she has been through some tough times during the pandemic,” Susanna responded. “She suffered a miscarriage, last year. So let’s have a little compassion for the fact that a lot of people have individual tragedies, despite the fact there is a backdrop of a global pandemic.

“I’m very sorry that she had a miscarriage. How do we know about that? Out of interest?” Piers said. “Because she wrote an op-ed piece for a newspaper.”

As the argument escalated further, Susanna told Piers he has “such a negative filter” about the royal couple, which is apparently one thing they could agree on.

“Yes I have!” Piers told her. “I literally do. You know why?”

“Because you’re obsessed with them,” Susanna offered.

“I’m not, I write about them no more than anybody else,” Piers insisted, claiming the couple should expect “legitimate criticism” if they continue to remain in the public eye.

“One person’s legitimate criticism is another person’s toxic coverage,” Susanna then argued.

“The toxic thing and the bullying thing and the obsessive thing, all that is such lazy critique… I don’t know a single writer, apart from one, who hasn’t totally agreed with me about this. You’re the outlier, you’re the one who seems to want to constantly defend them.”

After telling his co-host that “as a journalist” she should not be so defensive of Harry and Meghan, Susanna shot back: “Thanks for the lecture.”

“Well, you need it,” he then told her. “Because you keep using their language and using their words. Toxic. As if any criticism is toxic. It’s not.”

″[Only] the toxic criticism is toxic,” she later concluded.

Susanna isn’t the only one to have accused Piers of being unfairly critical of Meghan Markle.

Last year, GMB guest Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu claimed the host had a “personal vendetta” against the Duchess of Sussex, telling him: “You are a man, privileged to have power and influence and you are using your platform so irresponsibly to spout out this personal vendetta with nasty and vile comments knowing fully well that your words are containing bigotry, misogyny, sexism and racism.

“You don’t take responsibility for how you have contributed to the so-called royal crisis.”

Oprah With Meghan And Harry will air in the US on Sunday night. No UK broadcaster has yet been confirmed for the interview, although reports have suggested that ITV is the frontrunner.

Good Morning Britain airs every weekday from 6am on ITV.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Prince Philip as the Duke of York. This has now been amended.