Piers Morgan says his response to Daniel Craig carrying child in a papoose was ‘daft and sort of pointless’

Good Morning Britain host says he hopes people stop ‘fighting endless cultural wars over stuff’

Piers Morgan has said his criticism over Daniel Craig’s choice to carry his infant child in a papoose was “daft and sort of pointless”.

In 2018, the Good Morning Britain host incited backlash after he accused Craig, best known for his role as James Bond, of being “emasculated” by wearing the baby carrier.

Shortly after Craig and his wife, Rachel Weisz, welcomed their daughter, Ella, Morgan captioned a photo of the actor carrying the baby in a child sling: “Oh 007 … not you as well?!!! #papoose #emasculatedBond.”

In a second tweet, the father-of-four added: “Carrying a baby is harder work, but worth it for the unashamedly masculine joy of NOT wearing a papoose.”

The dad-shaming prompted numerous people to defend Craig and call out Morgan’s skewed image of masculinity.

“You really have to be so uncertain of your own masculinity to concern yourself with how another man carries his child,” Chris Evans tweeted at the time. “Any man who wastes time quantifying masculinity is terrified on the inside.”

In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Morgan has admitted that his criticism over the actor’s baby-carrying choice was “irrelevant in the general scheme of things”.

“Yeah. It was daft and sort of pointless and irrelevant in the general scheme of things,” Morgan said, before explaining that the ongoing pandemic has put things into perspective.

“So I think this has been a recalibrating crisis in many ways. And one of the good things I hope that comes out of it is that we all calm down a bit, including myself, about stuff that actually we now know is completely insignificant,” he continued. “People fighting endless cultural wars over stuff that I just felt was so unimportant.”

During the interview, Morgan also addressed his previous criticism of Meghan Markle, which he said went “too far”.

“Have I taken things a bit too far? Probably. Do I think that will govern and temper how I talk about them going forward? Absolutely,” he said.