Piers Morgan and his wife Celia Walden were burgled while they slept on the last day of their holiday in France, she has revealed. Writing for the Telegraph, Celia disclosed that the thieves took jewellery and cash from their holiday home in Cote d'Azur. She made the upsetting discovery that the intruders had even crept into their bedroom while they slept and stole money from her handbag, which had been on a chair by their bed. She later found her handbag on the sofa in the sitting room, along with her empty jewellery box.
MORE: Inside the homes of Good Morning Britain stars Kate Garraway, Piers Morgan & more
WATCH: Piers Morgan gets telling off from his mum on GMB
"I knew the second I walked into the sitting room that something was wrong," Celia wrote. "It was 6.15am on Thursday, and the last day of our holiday in the South of France. The previous night had been spent getting our rented house ready for 'check-out' – but the place was a mess.
MORE: Piers Morgan's holiday villa in the south of France is out of this world
Piers Morgan and his family enjoyed a summer holiday in the south of France
"My handbag was upside-down on the sofa, the box I keep my jewellery in lying empty beside it. And there was something else. I was the first up, but the air felt different, as though something or someone fast-moving and violent had passed through it. It felt like a room that had only recently been vacated."
MORE: Piers Morgan shares hilarious holiday photos with daughter Elise - and look who she's taking after!
Their villa was targeted by thieves
Celia revealed that the police believed the thieves had only left 15 minutes before she woke. "They would, they think, have heard the alarm I silenced with the snooze button (best decision of the year), and scarpered, leaving a trail of loose change, Tate and gym membership cards from my wallet in their wake," she shared. "Which should have reassured me: these people were themselves scared of an altercation – even if that altercation was with a woman in Moomin-print sleep shorts.
MORE: Major celebrations for Piers Morgan on his family holiday
"But then I remembered something that made me feel sick: the up-turned handbag found in the sitting room had originally been on a chair in our bedroom. They must have crept in there and stood inches away from us while we slept."
GMB star Piers pictured with his three sons
It's thought the family were targeted by a gang of thieves who prey on holidaymakers in the area. "I felt a stomach-plummeting sense of violation at the actions of these depraved and despicable inhuman beings," Celia said of the incident.
MORE: Amanda Holden holidays with Piers Morgan in France
The 44-year-old also listed some of the items stolen from the villa. "The jewellery part did sting. It still stings now, almost a week on," she wrote. "'They're just things,' I keep telling myself, and they are just things, but they're also memories that have been trampled over.
Piers and Celia have been married since June 2010
"The art deco ring my husband had bought me for our fifth wedding anniversary; the vintage Pucci cuff I'd picked up in a flea market in LA; those earrings I'd bought from Alfies Antique Market on the Edgware Road when my first book advance came through: every last piece I had with me was gone, none of it of great value, all of it irreplaceable."
MORE: Is this Piers Morgan's surprising future daughter-in-law?
WATCH: Piers Morgan reveals special detail about daughter's birth
Piers and Celia were in the south of France with their eight-year-old daughter Elise, and his three sons, Spencer, Stanley and Bertie. The family had intended to spend the majority of August in France, but decided to cut their holiday short to avoid the new quarantine rules.
