Nope, not today! Less than 48 hours after Muhammad Ali’s death, Piers Morgan trolled Twitter by claiming that the boxing legend was more racist than Donald Trump — and John Legend and Chrissy Teigen were not having it.
On Sunday, June 5, the British journalist, 51, tweeted, “Muhammad Ali said far more inflammatory/racist things about white people than Donald Trump ever has about Muslims. #fact. Why sugar-coat what Ali said or stood for? He never did that to himself, or when speaking to others. I hope people don’t make me sound too perfect when I die. No coats of sugar please.”
The controversial post immediately made headlines as social media users slammed Morgan, who responded in a series of follow-up tweets, writing, “Why would stating that Muhammad Ali made a lot of inflammatory, race-charged statements in his life be remotely controversial? He did. I’m sorry for ‘saying inflammatory things for attention.’ That’s the last thing Muhammad Ali would have condoned.”
Legend, 37, came across the TV personality’s tweets and responded, “You could test us by announcing your retirement,” to which Teigen, 30, joined in, replying to her hubby, “From what? Trolling isn’t a job (I’ve tried).”
Morgan fired back at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, writing, “Maybe I should take up a proper job, like modeling?”
“It keeps me nice and not-racist so sure, give it a go,” she responded. The Daily Mail Online U.S. editor-at-large shot back, “I’m not racist either, so that makes two of us.”
But it was Teigen who got the last laugh, jabbing, “Remember when Bruce Willis didn’t know he was dead? It’s like that,” in reference to the surprising end of the actor’s 1999 film The Sixth Sense.
Morgan further discussed Ali’s death during an episode of Good Morning Britain on Monday, June 6. “There was another side to Ali. He was incredibly controversial,” the morning show host said of the legendary boxer, who died on Friday, June 3, at age 74, before adding, “People need to be unafraid to be bold.”
Later on Monday, Morgan reignited the feud with another tweet. “You may want to read my new column about Ali & racism, @johnlegend @chrissyteigen — you may learn something,” he wrote.
Teigen fired back, writing, “Sorry can’t read, just a model doing modeling. Troll recognize troll. I can’t tweet him anymore. He has fans somehow and they … they aren’t quite ‘all there’, as they say.”
She added, “My newborn just looked up at me and said ‘mommy, why is piers morgan so unequivocally douchy?’ i didn’t know what to say,” and “Piers Morgan searches his name every 4.8 seconds. Hi, Piers. I know you’re reading this. You unequivocal douche.”
