The British Royal Family has faced a challenging period in the public spotlight over the past few years. Despite having encountered critics throughout their history, it wasn’t too long ago that the world eagerly tuned in to witness the captivating union of Prince William and Princess Kate.
Prince Harry’s union with Meghan Markle, occurring a few years later, garnered a somewhat less favorable reception. Subsequently, the notorious ‘Megxit’ unfolded, and since then, the Royal Family has been engulfed in a series of scandals.
In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Markle claimed that a member of the Royal Family made disparaging comments about the race of her then unborn son Prince Archie.
The release of Harry & Meghan on Netflix and Harry’s autobiography Spare only complicated things further.
Now, with the release of Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame this week, it doesn’t appear these PR woes will be dying down anytime soon either.
Scobie previously wrote Finding Freedom in 2020, which focused on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex before they went public about what transpired between them and the rest of the royals. Finding Freedom turned some heads but kept quiet about some of the things that would later come to light.
In contrast, Endgame pulls out all the stops.
Firstly, Scobie reveals that he knows the identity of the two royals who made comments about the race of Prince Archie. He claims that letters were exchanged after the reveal between Markle and the now King Charles that revealed their identities.
King Charles was reportedly horrified and did make an attempt to resolve the situation. In Scobie’s view, this is the reason why there is still some contact between Prince Harry and his family despite their relationship remaining strained.
Scobie did not reveal their identities in the book due to fear of legal reprisal. The initial copies of the Dutch translation have had to be pulled from shelves and destroyed because the names of the wrong people were somehow inserted into the book in that section.
The book also claims that the late Queen Elizabeth was sceptical of King Charles’s ability to lead. To this end, she hired the former MI5 chief Andrew Parker to serve has her new Lord Chamberlain to help in the transition between rulers. King Charles is reportedly more concerned with living a lavish lifestyle than ruling, which is a sentiment that has been echoed by others close to the family in the past.
The disgraced Prince Andrew comes under fire as well. Scobie claims that it was Prince William who was instrumental in having Prince Andrew’s titles and duties stripped after Prince Andrew’s close association with Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.
As this gripping chapter in the royal saga unfolds, Endgame ensures that the spotlight on the monarchy’s intricacies and controversies remains firmly lit.