Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix show “took the wind out of everyone’s sails” and left King Charles III describing his second son as “that fool,” according to biographer Omid Scobie’s new book.
The author wrote bombshell book Finding Freedom, released in 2020, which marked the first major reveal of Harry and Meghan’s perspective on their royal exit complete with allegations that William was a “snob.”
Harry and Meghan had always denied having anything to do with it until the duchess was forced to admit during a Court of Appeal hearing in a lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday that she authorized an aide to give the Scobie and co-author Carolyn Durand.
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Scobie’s second, solo project Endgame comes out on Tuesday and described the reaction at the palace after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s six hour docuseries Harry & Meghan dropped in two parts on Netflix in December 2022, three months after Queen Elizabeth II died and Charles became king.
According to a leaked extract published in The Sun, Scobie wrote: “At the palace, heads were in hands and migraines were brewing. ‘[The show] took the wind out of everyone’s sails,’ said one aide.”
“(He) went from not wanting anyone to talk about his son to openly criticizing ‘that fool,’ ” the book says.
Other leaked extracts suggested there were two people who discussed the skin color of Meghan Markle’s unborn child named in a letters sent between the duchess and the king in March 2021 after the Oprah Winfrey interview.
A letter from Charles, according to the book, expressed “no ill will” or “casual prejudice” had been involved and following the correspondence there were no “hard feelings” over the “specific incident.”
Meanwhile, the exchange meant “both had been heard,” though there was still much that was unresolved.
Meghan told Oprah Winfrey in March 2021: “So we have in tandem the conversation of ‘He won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title’ and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Harry later moved to clarify that the couple meant to accuse the royals of “unconscious bias” and had not meant to trigger the resulting hunt for the identity of the “royal racist,” which he blamed on the media.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are also said to have thought a South Park episode that ridiculed Harry and Meghan was “hilarious.”
The “Worldwide Privacy Tour” episode showed the “Prince and Princess of Canada,” who looked like Harry and Meghan, touring TV studios to campaign for privacy.
Endgame was published by Dey Street, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.