Susanna Reid credits Piers Morgan with helping her "toughen up".
The 49-year-old presenter has become "much more opinionated" as a result of working closely with her outspoken ‘Good Morning Britain’ co-host and, as a result, has had to become "more resilient" because it means she’s targeted for online abuse more.
She said: "Since working with Piers, I’ve become much more opinionated and when you’re opinionated you have to be more resilient, because if you’re going to put an opinion out there, you’re going to get an opinion back, so I’ve toughened up."
While Susanna and Piers largely get on well off-camera, she admitted some of their on-air spats have spilled over once the cameras stopped rolling but she’s fine about that.
She told Fabulous magazine: "I have a tough exterior because I have to be fully battle-ready for every morning with Piers on air, because he can throw anything out.
"Sometimes our battles are really vociferous on air, and sometimes we fight off air. We do have that kind of relationship, but as I often say, when I was at the BBC you can get very comfortable sitting on the fence."
Although Susanna tunes out a lot of Twitter comments, she admitted the ones she does she can "really sting" – but she’s grateful she doesn’t get the volume of abuse Piers receives.
She said: "I have a setting that means I don’t see a whole load of stuff that’s said to me, but even yesterday I did read a comment to me, Piers and ‘GMB’ saying: ‘You’re a terrible television presenter, you’re good for nothing, you can’t even make beans on toast and really you should go on ‘Love Island’.’
"I re-tweeted that saying: ‘Just opening my fan mail this morning.’ People can be exceptionally unpleasant and on the rare occasion, something will slip through and that can really sting.
"Sometimes I just think those people need to be called out on this stuff – it is so unnecessary. Just because I’m on TV doesn’t mean that’s not going to affect me in some way. We’re all human. But then I see some of the comments Piers gets and I think: ‘Goodness me, I don’t know the half of it.’"
Susanna Reid ‘tougher’ thanks to Piers Morgan
