Piers Morgan is no stranger to viral moments, but even he admitted that the global reaction to his interview with Russell Brand caught him off guard. A single two-minute clip of Brand flicking through his Bible has now racked up 35 million views, sparking widespread debate about whether his conversion to Christianity is genuine.
What viewers didn’t see, however, was what happened before the cameras started rolling.
Morgan revealed that Brand actually led them in a prayer before the interview began. Notably, Brand rested his hand on his own new book rather than the nearby Bible.
Morgan later shared the prayer by Brand in full: “Look, I know we’re both English, but do you mind if I pray? Before. Oh God, help us have a… My fears are that I’ll be somehow a disappointment to Piers or that this will become not in your spirit.”
Brand continued: “Let’s be in your spirit. Lord, I pray for healing for Piers, for his hip, and for reconciliation and anything that’s on his heart, Lord, that you would take it.”
The prayer then turned more introspective: “For the authenticity, Lord, of your presence in us, even in our imperfection, even through all my flaws, to be radiantly present. Thank you, Lord, for salvation. Thanks for being here now.”
Brand also referenced the interview itself: “Pray for this little… and for this whole AP operation, which I think might be fun in the most dubious way if we were to investigate it. Be present with us, Lord. Let your kingdom come in midst of the empire. Amen.”
Morgan, who is Catholic, clarified that he didn’t object to the prayer itself but the moment felt uncomfortable.
“I just found it all a bit excruciating,” he said. “It was more about the sheer awkwardness of the moment as we sat there under these very studio lights waiting for what we both knew would be a very controversial interview.”
He also acknowledged a detail that didn’t go unnoticed by viewers. “A few uncharitable people have since pointed out that Russell was praying with a hand on his own new book as opposed to the Bible,” Morgan noted. “Make of that what you will.”
Morgan described it as “one of the most absorbing, freewheeling, and chaotic interviews I’ve done probably in my entire life.” At one point, Morgan directly raised the possibility that it could all be, in his words, “one big act.”
One moment, in particular, stood out. Brand struggled to locate a Bible verse he claimed to have read in court, something Morgan said became “hands down the most memed moment of any interview I’ve done in my career.”
Rather than stepping in, Morgan made a deliberate choice to let the silence linger.
“The natural instinct of any interviewer is to feel very uncomfortable about silence,” he explained. “We call it, in the trade, dead air, and are taught to fill it immediately with something, anything.”
But this time was different. “In this case though, I decided to do something I’ve not really done in 40 years of media and just kept my mouth shut,” he said.
Morgan ended by making it clear that he wasn’t passing judgment on Brand’s sincerity or legal situation.
“If he beats the charges and proves his innocence, I look forward to interviewing him again,” he said. “And if he’s found guilty, well, he’s just going to have plenty of time to find that verse.”
