Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have publicly retreated from attacking the British royal family after apparently realizing that the British and American public have become tired of hearing them “whinge,” as the English say. But the California-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex still have their proxies putting forth the idea that they were badly mistreated by the monarchy and that only their star power could have helped an antiquated institution stay relevant in the 21st century.
One of those proxies has long been biographer Omid Scobie. Described as the Sussexes’ “mouthpiece,” and even as Meghan’s “lapdog,” the royal author has ramped up promotion for what he promises is a scathing new book about the royal family, which will offer an “explosive” and “penetrative investigation into the current state of the British monarchy,” The Telegraph reported.
The description for Scobie’s “Endgame” brands Charles as “unpopular” and William, the Prince of Wales,” as a “power-hungry heir.” The book also is expected to offer a sympathetic portrait of Harry, saying he was “forced to start a new life after being betrayed by his own family.” Queen Camilla, moreover, is in for some rough treatment in the book, being described as “a queen willing to go to dangerous lengths to preserve her image.”
Subtitled “Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival,” the book suggests that Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022 “ruptured the already-fractured foundations of the House of Windsor – and dismantled the protective shield around it.”
A publishing source in the United States told the Daily Mail: “The word is this is going to have bombshell after bombshell.” The book may even name the family member who was dubbed “the royal racist,” after Harry and Meghan famously claimed to Oprah Winfrey that this person questioned what color their son Archie’s skin would be.
The Daily Mail reported that the royal family is worried about what Scobie’s book will reveal, with a source saying, “I’ve been told this is bad, very bad. It is unlikely that royal aides will comment, but if there are charges of racism, they will, of course, be robustly rebutted.”
It’s questionable whether Scobie will be upfront about whether or not Harry and Meghan cooperated with the book, though he admitted that he spent time in California working on it, The Telegraph reported. Scobie and the Sussexes vigorously denied that the couple cooperated with him when he and his co-author Carolyn Durand researched “Finding Freedom,” their sympathetic 2020 book about the couple’s departure from royal life.
However, Meghan was later forced to admit in her U.K. privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, that she had authorized a royal press aide to give Scobie and Durand talking points for their book, The Telegraph said. The duchess also apologized for misleading the court, though she insisted she didn’t lie about communicating with Scobie — she had simply forgotten email exchanges in which she was told about a two-hour meeting between Jason Knauf, her then-communications secretary at Kensington Palace, and Scobie and Durand.
It’s hard to know how damaging “Endgame” could be for the royal family, or if it could somehow backfire on Harry and Meghan, if people believe they helped Scobie formulate some of the attacks on Charles, William and Camilla.
Right now, relations between the royal family and the Sussexes are said to be at an all-time low. The Telegraph has reported that Charles and his son “don’t speak much at all,” following Harry’s criticism of Camilla in his best-selling memoir, “Spare,” which was published last January. The Sunday Times also reported that Harry would not attend Charles’ 75th birthday this month, despite having been invited.
“The family has firmly shut the door on them for the time being, because of the documentary (the Netflix documentary “Harry and Meghan”) and the book,” a source close to the family told The Sunday Times.
As for Scobie’s claims that Charles’ “unpopularity” could signal the end of the British monarchy, the man who cheated on the late, beloved Princess Diana is certainly less popular than his late mother among the U.K. public. Even though she’s been dead for more than a year, Elizabeth is still the most popular royal, with 80% of U.K. adults saying they approved of her, in a third-quarter 2023 YouGov poll.
Nonetheless, a small majority of adults surveyed had a positive view of Charles. Moreover, the next generation of royals, represented by Charles’ supposedly “power-hungry” son William, and his wife, Catherine, are very well-liked in the U.K., winning approval from 69% and 71% of adults, respectively, the YouGov poll shows.
Meanwhile, when it comes to questions of popularity, it appears that Harry and Meghan’s status is more at risk than Charles’, with each winning approval from less than a quarter of U.K. adults.
Of course, Americans hold different views of the British royal family. A YouGov poll conducted in the weeks prior to Charles’ June 6 coronation shows that 62% of Americans said they didn’t care “very much” about the event, though about half also said they approved of him succeeding Elizabeth as monarch.
Americans also have a generally favorable view of William and Catherine, while the same poll shows that Harry and Meghan have become “polarizing” figures.
Back in the U.K., royal watchers have said that Charles’ first year on the throne has been mostly “successful,” even though rifts in his family — with Harry and Meghan, as well as with his disgraced younger brother Prince Andrew — still hang over his reign, Reuters reported.
But Charles’ four state visits during his first 14 months on the throne also have gone well, including his recent trip to Kenya, where he championed the environment and carefully discussed the shadow cast by British colonial rule of the African nation, The Times reported. Both he and William have been asserting themselves as global diplomats, eager to represent U.K. interests while trying to engage with the world.