Novak Djokovic has responded to Piers Morgan after the broadcaster publicly apologised for his “intemperate” comments about Djokovic’s decision not to get Covid vaccinations. The 24-time Grand Slam champion was famously deported from Australia ahead of the 2022 Australian Open after arriving without the vaccine.

Morgan slammed Djokovic at the time, branding him a “Covid rule cheat, immigration form liar and anti-vaxxer icon.” But the Serbian superstar was happy to hear Morgan backtrack on his remarks and admitted that he and everyone else was “going through hell” during the pandemic.

“I’ve talked about you quite a lot and I’m going to start by making an apology, and it’s for this. I was very censorious about you over the Covid scandal that you got caught up in,” the presenter told Djokovic.

“I was actually quite censorious about a lot of people at the time and I’ve since apologised for being too tough on them because once it became clear that, if you had the vaccine, it made no difference to whether you could then transmit the virus. Clearly, at that point for me, it becomes a personal choice.”

Morgan explained that Djokovic’s vaccine saga “felt quite personal” because he had seen his friends lose loved ones during the pandemic. After learning more information about the Serb’s situation, he realised things were more complicated than he realised.

The 60-year-old added: “When I look back on that and reflect on that, I would like to say I’m sorry for the intemperate language I used against you. Because I didn’t know you, I took what I was reading and hearing at face value, it turned out to be more complicated. Yeah, I’m sorry for over-egging the rhetorical souffle.”

Djokovic happily welcomed Morgan’s apology, suggesting that it “spoke volumes” about the broadcaster. The Olympic champion replied: “I appreciate that very much. Your honesty, thank you so much.

“It was difficult times and state of emergency globally, I understand. We’ve been through hell globally, all of us on this planet.”

Explaining his side of the story, Djokovic continued: “And the only thing I would add, not to really dig deeper into this whole situation on the Covid and vaccination, is that I was never a proponent of anti-vax or pro-vax, I was always freedom of choice.

“And that was misinterpreted, I was claimed to be one side or the other side or so forth. It was either black or white, and I said, ‘It doesn’t need to be that way’.

“As an athlete, as someone that takes care of the integrity of the body and understanding of obviously doing my research and understanding that I am not a threat to anybody and I don’t need to do it myself. I’ve been through it two times, two or three times I had Covid in like a year, year and I half, so I had all the antibodies et cetera.”

Turning his attention back to Morgan and the interview, the former world No. 1 made sure it was all water under the bridge. “Anyway, long story short, good to see you here, good to finally meet you,” he added.

“And I appreciate and respect the fact that, what you said, it speaks volumes about the person that you are so I really respect that and I was looking forward to speak to you even before you were slamming me for some time!”