'My wife has no sympathy': Piers Morgan reveals why Good Morning Britain is 'slowly killing' him

Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan has confessed that presenting the ITV weekday programme is "slowly killing" him due to health issues prompted by sleep deprivation.

The 52-year-old journalist told The Mirror that the sleeping pattern has turned him into "a zombie" and that he had gone to bed at 8.45pm the night before filming the show.

He said: "I woke up at 1am, 2am, and then 3am I got up and watched TV, so you basically become a complete zombie.

"I bumped into Sophie Raworth at the Chelsea Flower Show and she did it for two years on BBC Breakfast with Jeremy Bowen and she told me he actually thought he was dying.

"He had all these tests, and he thought he had cancer. It turned out it was just getting up at 3.30 in the morning. The moment he stopped doing the show, the pain went away. Literally, it was killing him."

Morgan – who hosted his own show on CNN from 2011 to 2014 – has presented GMB since 2015 but admits that his body is still not accustomed to the dysfunctional sleeping pattern.

He added: "It's killing me before my very eyes. It's the least healthy existence imaginable. Your immune system gets crushed, you pick up every bug going, I've basically been ill for the entire 18 months in some form.

"You have about 18 breakfasts before midday, so everything is terrible about it except the show itself."

But the defiant host isn't planning on leaving the show any time soon. He said: "I'll stay 'til death. If I die, it won't continue much longer. But my body is certainly screaming in pain at the moment."

Making matters worse, Morgan's wife Celia Walden, a newspaper columnist and feature writer, doesn't shower him with sympathy over the matter.

He said: "My wife has no sympathy because she's been up three times a night for the entire duration of our five year old daughter's life, so I'm aware people have to get up for work early and do night shifts and so on.

"If you haven't done it, let me tell you, it never gets easier, it just gets worse. Every day is a new horror".

Morgan also presents Piers Morgan's Life Stories and has written eight books, including four volumes of memoirs. He began his career in Fleet Street as a writer and editor for newspapers including The Sun, News of the World and the Daily Mirror.