With excerpts and reviews emerging for “Endgame,” the explosive new royal expose, it’s becoming clear why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have tried, not too successfully, to distance themselves from author Omid Scobie, the journalist who has been described as their “friendly biographer,” or even their “cheerleader, crusader and chum.”
As the New York Times review said, Scobie has done Meghan and Harry “no favors” in his efforts to portray them in the most glowing light possible. But his portrait, critics suggest, is rather shallow, one-sided and not always effective. As the Times said, Scobie devotes much of his book to “setting the record straight on petty slights” made against the California-based couple by Harry’s royal relatives or by the U.K. media.
In just one example of clumsy score settling, Scobie tried to defend the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s controversial use of private jets in a splashy interview with the Times of London to promote the book. But he ended up raising questions about their avowed commitment to the environment. In a strange exchange with Times writer Laura Pullman, Scobie also revealed himself to not always be the most reliable narrator.
Writer Laura Pullman brought up the fact that the couple have been called out over the years for using private jets, which are an anathema to environmentalists because they are known to spew high levels of greenhouse gases. Harry and Meghan are particularly susceptible to criticism on this issue because Harry is the founder of Travalyst, a travel industry initiative that encourages people to make sustainable choices when they travel.
Pullman mentioned that Harry and Meghan flew from California to Las Vegas and back by a Gulfstream jet — just for a Katy Perry concert. On this quick jaunt to Las Vegas, they also happened to be guests of oil heir Michael Herd. When asked about the trip, Scobie began: “Here’s the thing with private jets. I mean I obviously don’t fly on them myself.”
Pullman interrupted Scobie to say that she saw an Instagram photo of him, appearing to be traveling on a private jet. The author explained: “OK, that was a private jet, but that was only going from L.A. to Palm Springs. It was very short.” After this exchange, Pullman said she checked Instagram and this photo of Scobie had “been removed.”
As for Harry and Meghan’s private plane trip to Las Vegas, Scobie defended the couple’s choice by oddly saying that “Meghan has never publicly said a word about the environment, or really attached herself to anything to do with it.”
Scobie emphasized: “It’s nice of us to believe that she advocates for the environment, but maybe she doesn’t care and that’s OK too.”
Actually, Scobie appears to be misinformed on this point. Archewell, the Sussexes’ charitable foundation, made a pledge to become net zero by 2030. Indeed, Meghan, as the Duchess of Sussex, signed on to this pledge, as the Archewell Foundation says on its website.
“Our co-founders, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have a long-standing commitment to the planet, both together and prior to their union, with global projects and partnerships dating back over a decade,” Archewell said on its website.
“Nearly every activity in daily life results in the release of carbon into the atmosphere, and the sum total of those emissions is considered our ‘carbon footprint,'” the statement continued, before pointing out the key ways that people raise their carbon footprint, including “our transport and the frequency of it.”
Scobie’s book will be released Tuesday, but news outlets have already blasted headlines about “the bombshell” revelations the book contains. Scobie previously penned “Finding Freedom,” the sympathetic book about Harry and Meghan’s 2020 exit from royal life.
The thesis of “Endgame” is that the British monarchy is close to collapse because it is resistant to change, as presumably shown by its inability to accommodate the star power and “goodness” of Harry and Meghan, as Hilary Rose, another writer for the Times of London said.
After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Scobie questions whether King Charles III, “her hapless eldest son,” and his heirs have what it takes “to run the family business,” the New York Times said. “Endgame” also presents a critical view of palace machinations and the central players involved, with special attention paid to portraying Prince William as “hot-headed,” “power hungry” and “increasingly comfortable with the palace’s dirty tricks and the courtiers who dream them up,” Pullman wrote.
Meanwhile, Kate Middleton is depicted as a woman who “jokily shivered” at the mention of Meghan’s name and who is “too terrified to do anything more than grinning photo ops,” Pullman wrote.
In “Endgame,” Scobie also revives Meghan’s allegation that someone in the royal family made objectionable remarks about the skin color of Harry and Meghan’s unborn children. Harry later denied that Meghan had accused anyone of racism, saying that Meghan was only talking to Winfrey about “unconscious bias.” Scobie reveals in “Endgame” that Meghan exchanged letters with Charles after the Winfrey interview, in which she told her father-in-law that there were two members of the royal household who made racist comments about the children’s skin color.
This sort of detail about Meghan’s letter to Charles has given rise to speculation that she and Harry were somehow involved in helping Scobie research “Endgame.” When Laura Pullman asked Scobie if Meghan contributed to the book, he said he’s not her friend and he “didn’t interview her” for the book. But he explained that he and Meghan have “mutual friends” in common.
In her column for the Times of London, Rose said that Scobie and the Sussexes “routinely deny that they’re in cahoots, until they are compelled to admit the opposite in court.” During one of Harry and Meghan’s court cases against the U.K. media, it was learned that Meghan had in fact written up notes for an aide who was meeting with Scobie as he was writing “Finding Freedom,” which Rose described as “fawning.”
“Whether or not Scobie actively collaborated with Meghan and Harry for this book, he does them no favors,” New York Times critic Eva Wolchover also said. She also asks whether Scobie has really revealed anything new in his book, aside from his “dire predictions” about the monarchy, which are “a tad hyperbolic.”
“Readers hoping for a final death blow of gossip will be disappointed,” Wolchover wrote. “We’ve heard much of it before. From Fergie, from Diana, from Charles, from Harry, from Harry, from Harry again.”
