Omid Scobie is slightly nervous. ‘It’s a mixture of feeling sick and excited,’ admits the author and royal commentator. He can’t wait for people to read his new book, Endgame, but he also knows it’s going to ruffle more than a few feathers.
His last, 2020’sFinding Freedom, charted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’sstory, from their first meeting to their decision to quit The Firm and start a new life in California. It became a massive best-seller, but also earned him a reputation as the couple’s mouthpiece – a charge the British- born journalist, who became a prominent name in the US thanks to his royal reporting for the likes of Us Weekly, hotly denies.
Endgame is an entirely different proposition, he says. Rather than focusing on certain members, it explores the entire royal family and its role in modern society, questioning whether the monarchy as an institution can – or even should – survive.
Based on interviews with Palace staff, friends of the family and even, he says, family members, safe to say, it’s explosive. ‘The Queen provided a sort of invincibility shield around the royal family, because nobody ever wanted to disrespect her dedication to duty and everything she stood for,’ says Scobie. ‘Now she’s gone, it’s only right to look at whether the current senior members of the family are upholding those same morals and values. We shouldn’t be afraid to scrutinise royals in the way we do politicians.’
It isn’t a hatchet job, he insists. ‘This isn’t a book that only explores the negatives. It also looks at the positives and the strengths, and I need to do that, to allow the reader to weigh them up themselves.’
Still, there’s good reason for the family to be concerned. King Charles, he says, has shown an ‘inability to convene and command his own family and the problems within it’, while Queen Camilla is portrayed as desperate to protect her image at virtually any cost. Prince William is described as ‘power hungry’,and Scobie explores what he calls the ‘duality’ he perceives in the heir’s character.
‘There was the William of yesterday, which was that very loveable guy who, just like his brother, said he would never get involved in games with the media,’ he says. ‘Now, we fast forward to 2023 and William has, unfortunately, ended up in that place.’ Scobie says he was ‘very surprised’ to uncover the role he claims the prince played in certain stories about other family members – which ones he’s referring to are revealed in the book.
A chapter Scobie is particularly proud of concerns race, an issue Harry and Meghan shone a spotlight on when the duchess claimed a senior royal had commented on the potential colour of Archie’s skin. The son of a British father and Persian mother, Scobie says his background gives him a ‘different lens’ to other royal correspondents; not only on the racial undertones of Meghan’s treatment, but on the monarchy’s colonialist past and how it addresses the subject today.
‘Historically, it’s been easier for The Firm to brush issues like that under the carpet than confront them, but if these things continue to be ignored, how does that impact the future of the royal family?’ he asks.
The author is clearly frustrated by the perception of him as Harry and Meghan’s cheerleader. ‘It was easier for the press to say, “He’s Meghan’s friend and he’s just defending her,” than to fix the problem that I was talking about: the undertones I was witnessing in a lot of the coverage,’ he says. ‘I kept thinking to myself, “Why does anyone even care about me?” Never have
I seen that kind of focus on the journalist behind a royal story since the days of Andrew Morton.’
He promises the book contains revelations about the events leading to Harry and Meghan’s departure that haven’t been heard before, as well as about what’s happened between Harry and the other members of his family since. In the couple’s Netflix series and in Harry’s memoir Spare, the prince made clear he still wanted to talk to his family and to feel that they had really listened to his perspective.
‘I was quite surprised to hear that even some months after Spare came out, Harry was still making that effort with his family to try to have the conversations he was looking for,’ says Scobie. ‘And then it was very interesting to see the lengths to which some of those family members have gone to to avoid that happening, even though everything’s out in the open now.’ So for now, at least, it sounds as though a rapprochement remains off the cards.
Scobie also delves into the decisions the Sussexes have made since arriving in California, including their now-cancelled $20 million deal with Spotify. ‘Speaking with people on their team, they said there were some regrets about some of the deals they made,’ he says. ‘I think they’ve learned a lot from that, which is why they’re now being much more careful about the decisions they make and what they share.’
He expects the Sussexes to roll out new projects next year and says that, contrary to some reports, ‘They’re in a great place, their marriage is happy.’ For now, Scobie is bracing himself for the fallout from Endgame. ‘I think people will be surprised when they read it because it’s such a departure from anything they know about me,’ he says. Smiling, he adds, ‘And yes, the royal family will no doubt be following all the coverage.’
‘Endgame: Inside The Royal Family And The Monarchy’s Fight For Survival’ (HarperCollins) is out now