Piers Morgan addresses his naked fireplace picture: ‘Burger King paid me an obscene amount of money’

Piers Morgan has addressed his infamous nude photograph taken in front of a fireplace.

The 2009 image sees the former Good Morning Britain presenter posing nude, wearing only a medallion and a blanket in front of a roaring fireplace.

It was released as part of a Burger King ad campaign for a body spray. The photo was accompanied with the tagline: “The scent of seduction with a hint of flame-grilled meat.”

In his new column for The Daily Mail, Morgan revealed why he had agreed to the shoot. He also admitted that his face had been photoshopped onto the muscular body.

“Burger King paid me an obscene amount of money for a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign in which I posed like Burt Reynolds, semi-naked, lying by a roaring fire and wearing a big medallion, to promote a new fragrance called Flame that supposedly exuded an aroma of flame-grilled beef,” wrote Morgan.

He added: “And the world’s women drooled over my surprisingly ripped torso.”

The 55-year-old added that the body shown in the advert, however, was not his own but a male model named Grant Clarke.

Morgan recently criticised Sports Personality of the Year for naming the England men’s football team Team of the Year.

Gareth Southgate’s team were given the prize for reaching the final in the Euro 2020 tournament this summer, which was the first time the England team had made it to a major international tournament final since the 1966 World Cup.

Morgan, however, said that the decision to reward the team was “celebrating sporting losers”.