Harry and Meghan’s biographer has launched a snide attack on the Princess of Wales — portraying her as a woman terrified to do anything but grinning photo opportunities.
In an interview published today to plug his latest book, author Omid Scobie says: “The small achievements that we’ve seen from the Princess of Wales wouldn’t perhaps be noticed if it was from another member of the royal family, but with Kate it’s like ‘wow!’”
His cruel swipe — described by a friend of the Princess as “horribly unjust” — will infuriate the royal family.
Insiders said that in the past few years the Princess — intelligent, hard-working and passionate about the causes she promotes — has proved popular with the public.
But in a telling indication of the scornful tone of the new book, Scobie says that “we infantilise (Kate) massively so the bar is always lower”.
Today’s Sunday Times says that in the book the Princess is “portrayed as a woman terrified to do anything more than grinning photo ops”.
In the past, Scobie, 42, has been dubbed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s “mouthpiece” for his sympathetic portrayal of the couple.
His new book Endgame, a full-frontal assault on their perceived enemies, is expected to further widen the rift between Harry and his family.
Leaked extracts seen by The Mail on Sunday paint an unflattering picture of King Charles, with Scobie judging him “a flawed father” and a backstabber — and accusing him of effectively sanctioning leaks about his sons to the press.
Predictably, William also comes under fire. The author says he is increasingly in cahoots with Palace courtiers who dream up dirty tricks. By Scobie’s account, the Prince of Wales uses his aides and their press contacts to paint his younger brother as emotionally fragile.
Endgame also suggests William and Kate found the merciless lampooning of the Sussexes on the American animated satire South Park earlier this year “very funny”. William, it adds, disliked Meghan from the start.
And the book says the King thought his son was a “fool” for making a soul-baring Netflix documentary which claimed his father told “lies” and his brother “screamed and shouted” at the Sandringham Summit that resulted in the Sussexes leaving for the US.
Writing of what he sees as a power struggle between the favoured Prince and the “unpopular” King, Scobie claims Charles is jealous of William’s position and knows that while his reign will be merely transitional, his eldest son will have time to breathe new life into the monarchy.
He also claims Charles resented Harry’s popularity with the media. Accusing Charles of scheming and backstabbing, he says the King turned a blind eye while aides leaked details about his sons to the media.
In one section that will cause the King particular dismay, the book alleges he once used Harry’s troubles to improve his own public image. At the time, 2002, Harry’s drug-taking had been exposed in the now defunct News Of The World.
The book says Charles “piggybacked” on the story, allowing aides to leak personal details about Harry to create a “great dad” narrative.
This is a reference to reports implying Charles had arranged for Harry to make a low-key educational visit to a rehabilitation centre in Peckham, South East London, where he spoke to addicts, providing him with a “short, sharp shock”.
The Sussexes repeatedly denied co-operating with Scobie in Finding Freedom, the 2020 bestseller he wrote with Carolyn Durand about them. But Meghan later admitted in the High Court she authorised an aide to brief the pair secretly.
Scobie insists he is not friends with the Sussexes, nor was he in direct contact with them over the book. Sources close to the Sussexes deny they are “affiliated” with it.
Scobie describes it as a failure of the King that he did not open a dialogue with his son after his bombshell Oprah interview and Netflix documentary, adding that his poor relationship with Harry shows he is incapable of handling constitutional crises.
Endgame also makes controversial claims about William’s relationship with his brother. Scobie writes that the Prince of Wales did not like Meghan Markle from the beginning and stepped back from his brother after their wedding.
He adds this was because William no longer needed to use Harry as a useful distraction. But the claims do not just go over old ground.
Scobie alleges that Palace corruption and toxic media spin have continued into the present and reflects on what he portrays as the selfish agendas of the King and his eldest son.
This is part of Endgame’s thesis that the Royal Family are ‘desperate’ and floundering after the death of the late Queen. Other extracts suggest Palace aides expressed doubts about whether Charles would be a suitable King.
To survive, Scobie alleges that the Palace now uses “jingoism” in the style of Donald Trump.