Kirk Cameron Calls Piers Morgan Insensitive Over Anti-Gay Interview Broadcast, Host Fires Back

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Kirk Cameron tried to walk back high profile anti-gay comments he made during an interview with Piers Morgan earlier this month, and in doing so, ignited a rivalry with the host himself.

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Cameron called homosexuality "unnatural" and "destructive" and said that he does not support gay marriage during the interview, which drew rebukes from GLAAD and his own former Growing Pains castmates. On the Today Show, Cameron said that he was surprised that his comments garnered so much attention, given his long history of Christian conservative activism, and that he was taken out of context.

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"I love all people, I hate no one," Cameron said. "When you take a subject and reduce it to something like a four-second sound bite and a check mark on a ballot, I think that that's inappropriate and insensitive. ... To edit it down to that, it certainly didn't reflect my full heart on the matter."

He had previously said that he had heard words of support from his gay friends after the initial interview.

Morgan fired back over Twitter, sending out a series of messages aimed at the star he once defended as "brave" for putting forward such controversial opinions.

"Kirk Cameron is moaning everywhere today that I stitched him up by releasing a 4-second 'soundbite' re his comments on gay marriage," he tweeted. "These are the 4 seconds: homosexuality is 'unnatural..detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization... Mr Cameron 'stands by the comments', despite his whining. So I'll let others decide if he was stitched up...or just a bigot."