As we discussed, People Magazine’s print issue this week has an exclusive excerpt from the new Finding Freedom epilogue. The cover story is all about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Thrive Era, and it features an interview with Omid Scobie in addition to the book excerpt. Scobie and Carolyn Durand apparently quote “a friend of Meghan” and this is how it’s written in the epilogue:
“The queen’s ‘recollections may vary’ comment did not go unnoticed by the couple, who, a close source said, were ‘not surprised’ that full ownership was not taken. ‘Months later and little accountability has been taken,’ a pal of Meghan added. ‘How can you move forward with that?’”
So, obviously, the British tabloids have been freaking out about that for hours now and all of the royal commentators are chiming in about how Meghan and Harry are attacking the Queen personally and publicly. So the Sussexes… had their lawyers send out legal notices:
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have hit back at claims that they have “reignited a rift” with the royals by “publicly attacking” the queen. Their lawyers, Schillings, have written to at least one major British newspaper saying that the claims are “false and inaccurate,” a source at one paper told The Daily Beast.
The claims, similar to those made yesterday in The Daily Beast, dominated the front pages of major British newspapers Thursday. They were based on a new chapter of the book Finding Freedom, excerpts of which were published by People magazine in the U.S. this week.
In a sign that the relationship between Omid Scobie and the Sussex establishment might be fraying, a British newspaper source told The Daily Beast that journalists have been told they need to tread carefully when writing about the duke and duchess. “It seems to be an increasing trigger point for the Sussexes,” the source said. “The claims that have been published were sourced from a new chapter in the unauthorised biography, Finding Freedom. The attorneys for Harry and Meghan claim the authors do not speak for them and that the writers have ‘written about their take on matters.’”
The Sussexes have long denied that they co-operated with the authors of the book, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand. However, Scobie is known to have been a confidant of the couple and was, for example, invited to their farewell party when they left the U.K. Question marks have been raised about how the authors would have had access to a stunning level of detail in the book without Harry and Meghan, at the very least, authorizing their friends to talk. The book relates multiple private conversations and scenes that would have only been known to the couple.
The Daily Beast’s source said: “They’ve created this issue themselves. As they talk to Scobie, they’ve made him their unofficial spokesman so people buy into him.”
The source speculated that Meghan might be ready to “drop” Scobie, saying the episode had “clearly hit a nerve.”
I’m including Scobie’s response below. I honestly don’t know why anyone is freaking out about any of this. The excerpt from FF is pretty mild, all things considered, and the only reason the British tabloids are stoking hysteria about it is because they do that about literally anything involving Harry and Meghan. The “pal of Meghan” quoted said what is abundantly clear as well: of course there was no accountability from the Windsors, and of course there’s no effort to move forward. As for the dynamics between the Sussexes and Omid Scobie… the British media has been trying to drive a wedge between Scobie and the Sussexes for the better part of two years. The Royal Rota has always been really mad that the Sussexes have an ally in the national/international media. Remember that as you’re yelling at Scobie.
Back at this rodeo and, predictably, words are being twisted again.
The comments made by a SOURCE (a detail some outlets have purposefully ignored) were about a lack of ownership from the royal institution as a whole. There is no “attack” against the Queen anywhere in the book.
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) August 19, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Oh, I see we’re going with the poor little grandma act again. Why do these people present the monarchy as some sort of angel corps immune to any criticism, like we’re all totally ignorant? No wait, I think I can guess. Because they know what’s actually behind the curtain is Andrew. Mustn’t talk about Andrew.
And yet, Omid continue to stoke the fire just to sell more books!😒
I can’t wait for Harry’s memoir to come out so Finding Freedom book can finally be irrelevant.
Everything Meghan’s lawyer said about FF should have had Omid backing off from adding more to it. Since that very book was used to try to tarnish Meghan’s reputation in court. But money (in the Sussexes name) must be made above all else.
For me the Oprah interview has already made Omid’s book irrelevant.
I’m not going to buy another copy of the book to read the epilogue or whatever and I don’t really care what’s in there – he’s not going to drop any truth bombs and like you said, the Oprah interview made a lot of it irrelevant to me – BUT I am sure he was contractually obligated to write this epilogue for the paperback version. I’m just not sure who the audience is. People who are more sympathetic to them now?
He’s a reporter. That’s what they do. I think people need to take a step back and chill. Like it or not he probably does have some sources and he has a right to publish them. This is normal. Reporters have done this with Obama and trump after their presidencies.
The British media continue to do its job and people fall for it. They twist every single thing and manipulate to try and and generate hate against those they don’t like or fall into line with them. They can try but all their doing is giving more profile and engagement and money to H&M and Omid
Where was the same British outrage about what Laceys book would cause the poor feeble Queen who just put the full legal weight of the CROWN down on the media to protect Prince Andrew from facing media scrutiny because of the multiple allegations of RAPE of a TRAFFICKED MINOR?!
I hope they’re not dropping Scobie. He’s been scrupulously fair and is a rare progressive voice in the world of royal reporting. The entire royal press pack is intensely jealous of his access and I hope this is just more mischief-making on their part.
He’s not part of their team so there’s no matter of them dropping him.
The assumption that Omid was a confidante and part of their team has always been false. Neither side ever claimed it. Omid is just one of the few fair RRs that the Sussex’s don’t have a major issue with.
Just to be clear, by “dropping him” I was using the phrasing in the Sykes article. I meant I hope they don’t cold shoulder him and he continues to have some access, if for no other reason than he often refutes the dreadful reporting in the rest of the British media. They clearly have had a decent relationship with him. I know he’s not on the payroll and in fact it would be an insult to him as a journalist to suggest otherwise.
Like any journalist he is embroidering to turn the information he gathers into ‘stories’. The idea that he must have had some kind of direct access to their inner circle because he uses the phrasing ‘a pal close to the couple’ is hopelessly naive – journalists use that all the time to hide the sources of their information, infamously for years at the News Of The World ‘a source close to’ meant people’s hacked voicemails.
I’m not accusing Scobie of doing anything nefarious or illegal – it’s just the definition of ‘pal’ and ‘close’ can be stretched in all sorts of ways when the reporting is as obvious as ‘recollections may vary did not go unnoticed’, or ‘the palace is not taking full accountability’.
Jessica I knew what you meant and I agree. Omid was fair and kind to them when NO ONE ELSE would be, for years.
I have no idea what their relationship is like now or if they even have one at all, but I think he deserves the Sussexes’ loyalty at this point.
I guess this is my problem with Scobie, …”Like any journalist he is embroidering to turn the information he gathers into ‘stories’. ” First I wouldn’t say that is what a journalist should do. Sounds more like creative writing to me. Gossip columnist sure; although it is a bit unfair there too. Granted the RR is worse and obviously in a direction most on here don’t like, but still it’s not reporting or journalism. It’s spin and gossip. I hate that so many are holding on to this as truth, and not someone’s interpretation or creative writing for some. For one thing it really hurts society’s perception of true journalism which is greatly needed in today’s world.
My experience actually meeting celebrities, and I’ve met my share, is the majority are not what you’d expect. It’s because the branding is really strong, and honestly the Sussexes are giving off some strong branding vibes. Not that it’s a bad thing, especially as they seem to be using it more for altruistic purposes, but my guess is they are very different than depicted, even by favorable people like Scobie. The RR pisses me off more cause some of those outlets mix up the pure sensational with the true reporting and it just diminishes the credibility of the important reporting.
The performative outrage of the BM when it comes to H&M is exhuasting to read. I wonder whether it is exhausting to write too?
nah–these people run on hate and animus. It’s soul food for those racists.
I’d really believed that the Sussex hate would have started winding down by now, as people get tired of hearing about the same thing for years on end. And with the Sussexes, so much of the crap they publish is soooooooo repetitive. I honestly thought that by now, the frenzy of vitriol around them would have began to dissipate, if only because people have short memories. (I adore Harry and Meghan, but even I sometimes get “Sussex Fatigue” when there’s a lot going on/constant stories for weeks!). I definitely didn’t think the freaking Markles would still be popping up to opine every other week.
Obviously I knew the British press would still cover them, but didn’t think there would continue to be front pages trashing them every single damn day. Apparently I was very wrong! How long can people maintain this level of interest in this couple who they claim they can’t stand?
I have to admit, if some salacious scandal about William came out, I’d love it. Would read everything printed and discuss it here, etc. But if it had started in NOVEMBER OF 2016 — or even May 2018, around the time of the wedding, OR after the Sussexes’ first tour, or with all of the nonsense around Archie’s birth, which was much more recent — I would have moved on a long time ago by now because as you said, it’s just exhausting even reading the same thing over and over again all the time. These people are absolutely pathetic.
The press got used to the money they were making off Harry and Meghan, and they want that back. These fools chased their biggest money makers since Diana right out of the country. It makes me laugh to think of their rage.
ArtHistorian, it is probably not exhausting for them to write.
By now, I think they have macros for all their hateful H&M statements, so the outrage pieces just write themselves.
BM Shit-stirrers. If they can’t get one pot to boil over, the 🐀s scurry over to increase the heat on another one.
ANYTHING H&M will do, now and forever (as they saying goes), will cause this to happen. And it will continue on with the kids, pitting Cambs against M-W kids.
Harry was right: Generational Trauma. And while H&M can seemingly play alone, in their corner of the playground (of the world), the bullying BM/Cambs will always try and nudge their “ball” over to their side, to interfere and cause problems.
This article is by Tom Sykes so I’m taking it with a grain of salt.
That said, if it’s true their lawyers got involved – Omid is a good guy and most of the time his analyses are on point. I think it was fine for the Sussexes to not really pay attention to “Finding Freedom” when his book was speculating/describing events the way a normal “royal biography” would (I don’t believe he has any better access to them than any reporter and I don’t think they use him as a mouthpiece at all), but when they start wading into the actual discussion and reminiscences of Harry and Meghan themselves from the interview and the reaction of the Palace to it, that’s a little thornier. The Sussexes obviously worked very hard to frame how they wanted to say what they said in the interview, so someone else adding to it would naturally be a touchy subject. And I think the Oprah interview was supposed to be a punctuation to what they went through, not an extension of it (legal defenses aside).
The excerpt *was* pretty mild but obviously Harry and Meghan had an issue with it, so the above is just my speculation as to why. I still like Omid, though.
Also, let’s not pretend Scobie’s Iranian roots don’t draw out the disgust and ire of other RR’s.
Or did Meghan and Harry – as Omid’s tweet implies – have an issue with the source’s words being twisted into a (nonexistent) attack on the Queen? I think their lawyers more likely sent out notices about that rather than an attack on Omid’s reporting.
Exactly. The tabloids are twisting Omids ‘s words into an attack on the queen. Anything to create controversy when the tabloids themselves have been quoting “royal sources” for months about how the Sussexes are not welcomed anymore and they have burned all their bridges. So yeah, no progress in the relationship and no ownership.
Yeah, it’s hard to say because this is the only article I’m seeing on them sending out notices. It’s entirely possible. There’s no mention of them sending it to Omid.
So yeah, this is just them trying to drive a rift.
Sorry for lack of reading ability. It’s still early, lol.
The lawyers sent the notices to the British newspapers twisting the story and not to Omid. If they had an issue with the book the notice would have been sent to him and it is important to note that they did not. So once again it is the tabloids stirring the pot.
I also think that the Sussexes know Omid by now and they know how he operates.
They of all people are not going to believe some BS in the Fail (or any of those rags, or the “reporters” who work for them) and let it affect their opinion of him because they know it’s mostly fiction.
@BearcatLawyer, I see it as you do. The problem is with the tabloids twisting Obie’s ‘sources’ words along with Daily Beast putting their own spin on it with their source/”source”. Sykes is problematic. So is the Editorat Large of the Daily Beast, Lachlan Cartwright.
His background is entrenched in tabloids.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/lachlan-cartwright
National Enquirer, The Sun, New York Daily News, New York Post.
I’m w/ all those above who are questioning Tom Sykes/Daily Beast’s reading comprehension. In one breath he says that H & M’s lawyers sent a letter to British newspapers about their inaccurate statements. Then Sykes goes on to quote a “source” from a British paper who thinks this means there’s a fraying in the Sussexes’ relationship w/ Omid Scobie – who is NOT reported to have received a lawyer’s letter. Then, just to be more obtuse, Sykes writes even more from the British papers (thereby amplifying their voices) stating that H & M brought this on themselves, by talking with Omid. The only time they can directly show that was to say he (as a journalist) was invited to cover H & M’s farewell event w/ staff. Ridiculous take on this whole situation by Sykes.
The problem with Omid is that he had refused to clarify whether the Sussexes spoke to him for the book or if they gave approval for the book. It was only when he had to go to court that he denied that Harry and Meghan were involved with the book. I don’t believe that Omid has any special relationship with Harry and Meghan but he’s the only one that doesn’t attack them. He was not invited to a farewell party but he was one of the reporters who were invited to one of Meghan’s last engagements. This has always been a sore point between him and the rest of the Royal rota because he got access that the others didn’t. It’s interesting that the other 2 journalists who were there, one of whom is Omid’s co-author doesn’t get attacked by the media like he does. Oh and the legal letter was sent to the Telegraph. They had to change their headline which said that the Sussexes felt that the Queen didn’t take full accountability to the book claims that.
He denied that H&M were directly involved with the book by giving interviews. Meghan has said that she gave permission to friends and such to talk to him about things. So, they were indirectly involved. Which I think is what made the issue unclear because people accused Meghan of telling her friends exactly what to say. I don’t remember him being outright dishonest about it. Just a little vague, but that also might have been from pressure put on him by the publisher. He’s always been fair to the Sussexes side, they have no problem with him and have used him to help announce things many times. Which is why he gets attacked. He gets it from both sides because so many think he’s got a direct line to the Sussexes. He has just as much a direct line as any other outlet the Sussexes choose to use.
Meghan said she gave permission for one friend to clarify something pertaining to her father and the letter she wrote him, that’s it. She didn’t as you say, give permission to her FRIENDS to speak to Omid at large. They (Harry and Meghan) weren’t involved in the book evidenced by how wrong Omid got things and compared to the Oprah interview.
FF seems kinda redundant as the Oprah interview (and it’s aftermath) showed much darker things were than described in the book. Plus Oprah & court case pointed out some of its inaccuracies. Lacey’s book & FF have conflicting details as to whether Harry met with William & Charles at Philip’s funeral or not. Think it shows how much sourcing in royal reporting is garbage.
Carolyn& omid said they started writing FF in 2017 so my guess is friends were approached then when it was meant to be a cute new royal marriage bio. Harry& Meghan said they weren’t involved but were relaxed about friends speaking to the authors when book was announced.
I think when Thomas’ rants started,one of those friends was approached by Carolyn/Omid to ask if Meghan had tried contacting her father & per her court case she said this friend could. I think the authors had info like that or version of tiara story when smears started in 2018 way before the book was announced which was one of my issues with Carolyn&Omid- there could have been alternative reporting to the smears but they didn’t try correct the record until the Sussexes left.
I think omid has a good relationship with their press team & he’s one of those they contact to correct certain U.K. tabloid stories. but I don’t think he has ever had the close access that the press claim & certainly not like Charles& Jobson or Camilla Tominey & Kate. I don’t think he even broke stories like editing Vogue or doing the cookbook& haven’t seen him break any of the big stories since they moved to US like Netflix, Spotify deals, pregnancy etc. So I think it’s relatively arms length which is appropriate really. He shouldn’t even be seen as an ally etc. There should be professional distance.
I think those comments in the epilogue about the firm not taking accountability was taken from Meghan’s friend Janina’s interview. She was on british breakfast show after Oprah interview saying that the firm may claim recollections may vary but they (Meghan’s friends) were there & remember & there are receipts backing what they said. Many of her friends were vocal around the time of the interview so I can see comments from a ‘source’ just being from friends social media/tv/mag interviews as opposed to them speaking to the authors directly. The comments aren’t wrong though but easier to call it an attack on the queen rather than look at what the firm has done to address these claims.
@Bess There’s plenty of evidence of the firm’s racism to support Harry& meghans claims- see the guardians report of the firms ethnic minorities staff ban. whilst I don’t think much of Elizabeth, she may be a decent grandmother who he respects. I wonder if the non working royals like Peter & Zara see the grandmother side more than the queen side & that’s who Harry relates to more now she’s not his boss. A times article said she was only one Harry & William would listen to & her & Philip were the friendliest to Harry& Meghan when they were publicly funded royals.
The press & the courtiers would like nothing more than to drive wedge between Harry & Elizabeth. But having lost a mother& not sure status of relationships with William & Charles, maybe that’s why he’s protective of narrative around Elizabeth.
omid constantly gets attacked by the british media and their readers for not smearing the sussexes 24/7. they’d also really like us to believe that he’s like besties with h+m or something and not an actual journalist who in fact lives an ocean away from the sussexes.
people being mad with omid for this or that reason are proof that the rota attacks are working. the salty ‘experts’ would *love* to alienate h+m (and their fans) from one of the few reporters their team actually talks to, and who hasn’t made a career out of attacking h+m nonstop.
h+m could use any allies they can get in the media. you don’t have to love omid, but let’s not pretend we don’t see a rota-style hit job when we see one, okay?
This is true. I am neutral when it comes to Omid, which is a huge step up from what I feel about the other British reporters. I think he’s as fair as a reporter can be who depends on juicy bits of happenings to write about. He understands the racism Meghan is experiencing from the BM because he’s also receiving some unlike his white writing partner. He was smart to be fair, which is why he’s widely used in the US unlike the others.
@Taris honestly! Agree with everything you said.
Are there actually Sussex FANS attacking Omid on Twitter or wherever? Because they should really know better by now, jfc.
@ABritGuest, re: your last point — that’s interesting and I’d never thought of it that way before. I’m one of the people who thinks Harry has blinders on when it comes to Liz and while she may have been kinder than the others (a low bar), the fact remains that she could have helped them and she didn’t. Full stop. We just saw yesterday with her letter about photos at Balmoral that she *absolutely* has pull over what is published, yet she never, not once, lifted a finger to help Harry and Meghan when their lives were being made total and utter hell by the media, with aid from HER family.
But now that you point it out, you’re right, he has no one else left (obviously excluding his little family), so it might be sort of a willful ignorance to believe the best of her. He might just need to cling to the idea of her as his beloved grandmother, especially as she won’t be around too much longer. I’m sure many of us have people in our own lives who we’ve done that with whether we realize it or not. And it’s definitely the right strategy for them to adopt publicly.
I concur @taris.
So I can believe that the relationship between the Sussexes and Omid has frayed a bit – I was never one who thought that he was their unofficial spokesperson, just that he was someone with access, even after they moved, and a lot of the tabloids (all?) lost that access. And by “access” I mean their actual spokesperson would talk to him and would take his calls, while not taking the calls of the rest of the RRs.
But they also needed him more when they were in the UK and were surrounded by the likes of Dan Wootton, emily andrews, richards Eden, Palmer and Fitzwilliams, etc. Now in the US they are not reliant on the rota and they can use whatever media outlet they want to get their information out there, or just their own website directly, and their spokesperson can just issue a statement when necessary. So Omid’s access, compared to the rest of the rota, is less important.
As for this Daily Beast article – it seems to be more about the coverage of the FF epilogue than the epilogue itself? It feels like the Sussexes are just reminding the tabloids et al that Omid is NOT their spokesperson, no matter how much they try to insist he is, and that there is no rift with the queen.
Someone on the other post mentioned how could the Sussexes think the Queen has not taken ownership but then name their daughter after her – and I think the answer goes back to what Omid says, and to what many of us have said – the institution did not take ownership. Now of course the response to that is that the Queen IS the institution, but its clear that there is a lot going on behind the scenes regarding that whole situation that we just do not know.
Also, whether or not the conversations described in the epilogue are true or not, and whether or not Meghan sat down with Omid to share very detail of her royal life (I don’t think that happened lol), let’s point out that this conversation did NOT happen with Battle of Brothers or any other royal book that has come out over the past two or three years. For example, this:
“Question marks have been raised about how the authors would have had access to a stunning level of detail in the book without Harry and Meghan, at the very least, authorizing their friends to talk. The book relates multiple private conversations and scenes that would have only been known to the couple.”
But no one was concerned about how Lacey had access to a “stunning level of detail” about “multiple private conversations” with William and Harry or William and his friends about Meghan???
@Becks: Omid has the same access to Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson as the other papers that were not banned. Information about their foundation was confirmed by their spokesperson to the Telegraph not Omid. It is very clear that if there are questions journalists from non-banned papers, they are usually answered. Chris Ship from ITV boasted on his royal podcast that they speak to Harry and Meghan’s team all the time. However what comes out a lot of the time is the four banned tabloids’ anger towards Omid (who’s mixed race) because he doesn’t bash the Sussexes and some perceived special access he has to Harry and Meghan.
Right, exactly, that’s why I said that he had the access that a lot of the tabloids lost. His access was just special compared to the banned tabloids, not compared to every other media outlet in the world. But for some reason that, combined with his race/heritage, triggers a lot of the RRs and we see these kinds of attacks. I also think that Omid’s status as a nonwhite person in the UK made him see the Sussex situation with a lot more clarity than someone like Chris Ship.
They keep trying to spin that FF was the same as when Diana worked with Morton and it is not. Omid got as much access to Harry and Meghan as Robert Lacey got with William and Harry. In fact I would argue that Lacey got more direct contact from William for his revised version because it provided more nasty slams against Harry and Meghan that Lacey would never have published if he didn’t have a direct source for it.
I wonder why there isn’t at least one British outlet that has taken the pro-Sussex position, that would run major stories on things like what you all just mentioned— Lacey had the same amount of access to William, if not more. And clearly a lot of the reporters do, too, especially that whiny dipshit Dan Wooton. They could take the devil’s advocate’s position and spar back and forth with the other outlets, and they would still make money because they’d be supported not only by Sussex supporters, but also all of the nasty, stupid people who enjoy trashing Harry and Meghan every day of their damn lives and refuting anything nice about them. They wouldn’t be able to resist commenting and sharing articles saying what BS it is or whatever. A hate click is still a click!
+1
Maybe Scobie is becoming too familliar and they are making that clear. This happens all the time I have read a lot of celebs drop assistants,managers,baby sitters when they now feel too entitled.
Omid has played a game where he’s tried to sneakily make out that he has more access than he really does. He doesn’t admit or deny that H&M spoke directly to him or contributed to his book. He wants people to think he’s close to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sussex’s had grown tired of it. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the “friend” that quote came from was Omid himself.
I don’t know…I think Omid is just doing his job, and Meghan knows how things work— he needs to make a living, too. The fact remains that he has always been fair in his coverage of them- always. That should count for something, and I think it probably does with Harry and Meghan.
He isn’t their lapdog, but he is fair and kind in his coverage. I think they would/will remain loyal to him, which really just means not banning him and treating him like they do any other journalist who isn’t affiliated with the ROTA. But Omid has always been sort of a divisive figure in this entire saga; most people usually either love him or can’t stand him.
The British press completely twisting/inaccurately extrapolating the words of a source in FF to drive a wedge between Team Sussex and Omid Scobie is not surprising at all. I hope they stay on good terms and united against the ass clowns in the press.
Actually the aim of the tabloids is drive a wedge between the Sussexes and Queen not Omid.
They want to do both, imo
Reading comprehension is rapidly becoming a lost art. Nowhere does it say that the Sussexes had an issue with Omid’s reporting or the source’s comments. Instead it appears the Sussexes’ issue is that this excerpt is being turned into an attack on the Queen in the British press when it so clearly is NOT a personal attack on any one person. It appears to me that while the Sussexes may be frustrated with the behaviour of individual members of the Royal family, their major problem all along has been the complete clown show of the Firm and the courtiers.
+100
People start reacting before they finish a sentence. It’s exhausting to have to explain something over and over because someone read the first sentence and not the second, but they still want to complain about it.
Thank you!!!!
It’s crazy that the British media that everyone calls liars every day suddenly is telling the truth about Scobie. Unbelievable.
I completely agree!
Agreeing again.
This is the royal rats trying to kill two birds with one stone. They want to take Omid down a few pegs and they want to stir up animus between the Queen and the Sussex’s.
@Snuffles: Exactly.
The whole “attack on the queen” talking point seems to really be a sore spot for H&M— and I think H more than M. I’m not quite sure I understand why. Possibly Harry’s relationship with Elizabeth is a lot more complicated than he makes it out to be— he knows this fresh round of attacks is to deflect from Andrew, and Elizabeth (or the courtiers) just flexed their muscles to the BM with the embargo on pics of the family at Balmoral.
I mean— maybe it’s because she’s the last person he has a connection with in the working royals? I dunno. But at this point he’s made it clear his relationship with his grandmother is a line he will defend.
I think because he knows its the last thing the rota and courtiers have on him and maybe at this point, its the only thing that still resonates with the public.
Like there were lots of people mad that Harry “dared” to criticize his upbringing in the Dax podcast and TMYCS, but after the dust settled a bit people were like “Well yeah Charles was a crap father, we all knew that.” The rota push the “harry is attacking charles” line and it doesn’t really resonate with the public – maybe with the hardcore royalists, but anyone who lived through Diana should know that Charles is cold and out for Charles above all else.
The Queen, on the other hand? That’s a criticism that can resonate and stick to Harry and hurt him in the eyes of the public. and especially if he knows the truth -that his relationship with his grandmother is good, they are getting along and by his own admission he is talking to her more now than he ever did – so using her to attack him (by saying HE’S attacking the queen) is something he won’t allow.
I dont know if I’m wording that right. but you’re right that his relationship with her is a line he will defend and honestly I think it comes down to what we see from him in regards to Meghan and his children – he’s not going to let the press use someone he loves, and that’s exactly what they’re doing with the “Harry is attacking the queen!” nonsense.
I don’t know. Maybe its simpler than that, and H&M know they can’t defend against everything the rota say, since they really do rant about them endlessly, but they have decided that anything involving the Queen is a line in the sand to defend.
The thing is that you can’t separate the Queen from the institution. The Queen is Harry’s grandmother, but she is also the head of an institution that he claims is racist and made him miserable.
Harry loves his grandmother. That’s really all the explanation we need. Harry can’t change the monarchy, he can’t change his toxic family, he can’t change the British media. He did the only thing he could do, which was to distance himself and his family. And, at the end of the day, he still loves his father and brother. He revealed how they hurt him and his family in the Oprah interview, but still did it with sympathy. And he hasn’t said an unkind word about them since.
@Bess – sure, and he left the institution that is racist and made him miserable. So, evidently, he can separate the Queen from the institution. Maybe we can’t make that separation, but we weren’t born into the monarchy, either.
I wonder if they embargoed pictures from Balmoral to make Harry and Meghan a bigger target this summer? What or who are they trying to hide? Andrew, moving vans in Norfolk, the absence of Kate at Balmoral? Colour me intrigued.
That quote about how the Sussexes are “close” to Omid because he was at that last QC event is bizarre because Victoria Murphy was there too and no one accuses her of being personally close to them. Im sure that back in 2019 when Meghan was in a bad place and none of her friends could publicly defend her that some of them went to Omid and that he has had a decent relationship with their team but i dont understand why people think it is a personal thing and he knows them intimately. He, Victoria M, and Carolyn were pretty much the only RRs who didnt try to beat Meghan with a stick every day when she was on saltine island. They got ins out of default but after they left and Harry, Meghan, and their friends got to a place where they could speak for themselves the exclusives really dried up.
Victoria M is now just playing the game of kissing the Windsors asses and Carolyn and Omid are pretty much just saying things that anyone with half a brain could make up. The only real exclusive i think he’s gotten in the last year was the week after Phillip died when he was talking about how Harry was just there to pay respects to his grandfather and there was no drama or reconciliation. Outside of that he’s had no exclusives about their work and the majority of stuff he’s said about their personal lives has just been rehashes of publicly available info. I said it when FF was released last year: if H&M wanted stuff said they could just write their own books as they’d get a pretty penny for it and now that they’ve signed book deals and given interviews themselves I stand by that assessment. There is no logical reason for them to participate with a biography when they could literally just write their own memoir and they’ve shown they prefer to speak for themselves. And as Janina said their friends can now publicly defend them as well. It’s a “new era”.
@Chelsea: I’m betting that Omid was the only one to ask about Harry attending Philip’s furneral because the rest of press were only interested in pushing the narrative that Harry was eager for reconciliation with the Windsors and that Kate was the peacemaker. And I thought the same way about Finding Freedom. Harry and Meghan were never going to gave away their story to somebody else to write. They were always going to tell their own story.
In their view Scobie’ isn’t a neutral observer because he’s on “her team” since he’s non-white himself. It’s just “them sticking together” and not an attempt at objectivity. Racism can warp your view of reality so badly that it can be a real strategic liability.
I find this devastatingly accurate
@RNOT god that’s so gross. But you’re probably right.
The book was co-written, but everything is always aimed at Omid alone. Obviously it’s not as if I *want* anyone attacking Carolyn, but it’s just strange the way she’s erased from the narrative completely. Is she on Twitter? Because if not, I can see how it wouldn’t be as easy for them to trash her every day, so that works in her favor. But if I didn’t know better and was reading only this coverage, I’d definitely think this was Omid’s book alone.
This is funny to me. Supposedly Omid claimed the “source” wondered how the relationship could be repaired or move forward without the other party taking ownership yet Harry and Meghan said they had a good relationship with the queen. The relationships with William and Charles were the ones in the dumpster. So now we know who will not take ownership of those “very much racist” comments. It was Chilliam all along, lol!
@Msiam: CHILLIAM! That’s perfect and I love it 😂
Also I hope this doesnt distract from Harrys Invictus Games joining #WeThe15 https://invictusgamesfoundation.org/wethe15-a-global-human-rights-movement-for-the-1-2-billion-persons-with-disabilities/
One thing I’ve learned from so many media ginned up “controversies” is to take a close look and see if both versions of the story can be true. Inevitably this is the case. True in political coverage, true here.
My headcanon: Harry knows who the assholes are. He knows Granny knows who they are, is unhappy with the situation, but due to her own f’ed up views about duty and propriety, isn’t going to call them out publicly. Harry has made his peace with that.
I think some Sussex supporters need to understand that no matter what Meghan and Harry do it will ALWAYS be spun negatively by the same people in the British media. But notice they only attack Omid so far and they tried to go after clevrblds. They didn’t go after any of the other celebrities or orgs that partnered with M&H.
Imagine once they start doing their podcasts. Every week will be another headline about how H&M attacked the Queen/family or are woke blah blah blah. I hope the British people can see through this eventually if they haven’t already. At some point it will get old and they’ll just have to accept H&M have moved on and are living their lives on their terms.
Speaking of podcasts, I noticed that today’s episode of “Pod Save the Queen” focuses on the Wessexes and I lol’d. I don’t remember them being covered or really discussed at all on any podcast ever, let alone have an entire episode dedicated to them. (I didn’t do a search, so I could be wrong, but I’ve been subscribed to a lot of those shows for years, and don’t recall them ever even being mentioned before.)
I wonder what the ratings will be like for this ep, lol.
Omid has always been and should always be an ally. He’s got a book to sell, and I’m sure he needed to write this epilogue per his publishers. But who is the audience at this point? I guess those that don’t really follow the gossip blogs.
In any case, I’m not mad at him.
I was going to ignore the stories regarding the FF epilogue since Meghan said in court that the book is pretty wrong and the Oprah interview showed a lot of it was wrong anyways so I didn’t feel like wasting energy on it but after seeing that their lawyers have gotten involved I decided to pitch in.
I agree with others that the Sussexes complaints seem to be more about the reporting (the they’re attacking the queen! line) rather than Omid’s reporting. I also don’t agree with the “he’s being phased out of the Sussexes team” because he was never in their team in the first place. He had a friendly relationship with their press office but that’s it. And again, they’re not mad at him but at his colleagues and peers not reporting it correctly.
@Sofia my impression of Meghan is that she’s a thoughtful and loyal person, and she won’t forget that Omid was the only one not smearing her for all of those years. Obviously this is speculation, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they threw some small-ish exclusives his way every so often, as their way of showing their appreciation. Meghan won’t forget that he was the *only* one who was fair to her. But who knows; I have zero experience in how these things work.
The daily beast is conflating two events to create a false impression. The Sussexes had a farewell lunch not party for their staff at the Goring Hotel. No media was there. In fact when Sussexes were spotted there some members of the carnival suggested they were staying there instead of Frogmore. Then there was the QCT event which was Meghan last Solo engagement. Two members of the rota and Bryony Gordon were there.
IMO. The Sussexes are reacting to the tabloid coverage of the book not the book itself. Specifically, the claim that what Omid sourced are their direct thoughts/feelings etc. Omid I isn’t even claiming that. And then most importantly they are responding to the claim that they directly criticized the Queen. I’m glad they are addressing it this quickly.
As for Omid. There is no evidence that he ever had any special or special relationship to the Sussexes. He just reported without bias and spin. And he will actual go to their spokesperson for clarification on things that other members of the carnival don’t. In court, the Sussexes deposition directly debunked many of his “inside” details. My issue with Omid is simply that despite his less toxic ways he still engages in the typical royal reporter style reporting. Which is largely centered around speculation presented as facts or inside knowledge. The fact that he is “nicer” doesn’t change that. I’m sure the Sussexes appreciated his fairness in the face of such overwhelmingly biased coverage. That doesn’t mean he their confidante or spokesperson or that they have a special relationship. Since they left he had been given no access to anything they’ve done.
Agree. This article was definitely trying to blame H&M and omid. But it’s Tom Sykes so I’m not surprised. These same royal reporters that have friends in the royal family, connections to courtiers that they source their stories from now complaining about Omids potential sourcing. 🙄 The double standards and fake outrage of these people is never ending.
@Linda Tom Sykes is such a hack that I don’t even read his nonsense. He’s just awful and I don’t know how he wasn’t replaced ages ago. Personally I can’t wait for Tina Brown’s book!
Catherine, of all the comments I have read here, yours makes the most sense to me. I can clearly understand and agree with you. Not like so e of the rest don’t but this I get.
Agree. The British media always want to present an issue against Harry and Meghan as they’re attacking the sorceress. Excuse me, I mean Queen. Neither Harry nor Meghan have murmured a disparaging word about her. However, she is the head of the institution that caused them so much unnecessary pain. Also, with the Prince Andrew fiasco, she has shown that she holds power in her magic wand to stop the press madness; she chooses not to. History will not be kind to her
About time Harry and Meghan set their attorneys on these assholes.
They may just have closed up another way for the RR to make money in the US. American publicans will not touch stories that might get them sued, so we will probably see a decline in RR stories being published in US publications.
By sending out legal notices to the BM, the attorneys are also putting the US publications on notice. If my musings are correct, that a pretty smart move by their attorneys
Scobie lied about being a close confident to Harry & Meghan. Just because he was one of three reporters invited to their farewell event doesn’t make them close. I hope their lawyers sent him and Carolyn a stern warning.
He never lied. He’s always said he wasn’t a close friend like the fail and other try to make it out to be. He even said it in his podcast. He’s a target cause he’s been consistently fair.
When did he claim to be a close confidante? Do you have a link? Because I don’t remember him ever saying this. Other people said it ABOUT him but he never said it himself.
This shows too things that come up time and again for the Sussexes. They speak for themselves now and will correct the record, through their lawyers, with a quickness. They were very clear in the Oprah interview and will say nothing against the Queen. There is also a lot of professional jealousy towards Scobie from other royal reporters and they are always looking for ways to see a fraying of the relationship they think he has with the Sussexes because he has more access to them
or those around them, which the others never will.
I have never read FF so any knowledge I have about it is from things Kaiser has posted and interviews I have seen omid give. It seems that although two people wrote the book , Omid for whatever reason has decided he will take the bullets for both him and Carolyn.
All I can say and again it’s only based on what I have heard is that omid has made himself millions I would assume off writing about the Sussex. I know he tries to be fare but he also seems to make shit up as he goes along. He probably does contact their publicist for somethings but I would assume they probably give him no comments sometimes as a response.
He also does what a Lot of the other rr do , which is say things like sources say this and that and a close friend says this and that. I wish he would just word things differently like saying I believe or I think or I would feel this is the way they would have felt because I think people can then understand that because we all feel like we imagine this is how they must feel about A, B and C . I remembered a long time ago when they had first moved to California, omid was giving an interview, I can’t remember to whom, however the person asked omid when Archie would be getting a sibling and omid said that the Sussex were happy with just Archie and not looking to expand their family, yet we found out a few months later that Meghan had miscarried. I can’t ever forget that . So this is why I think it would be better for omid to word things by saying it’s his belief and not say them like he has some kind of inside knowledge. That’s just my take on all this.
I wouldn’t assume he wholesale “makes shit up as he goes along”. If he has a source, as in this situation, he says so. Not everything will be sourced from the H&M press office. I can believe people may be willing to talk to him that wouldn’t be willing to talk to the tabloids H&M refuse to deal with. My belief, because he appears to try and be fair, and has a reputation to protect, is that he has some level of confidence in what his sources tell him. But there’s no guarantee he’s getting totally accurate information, especially as we know how good H&M have been at avoiding information leaking about what they’re up to.
And he is after all a reporter on the “royal beat”. If he’s not directly quoting a source when he speaks, I personally assume he’s giving us his own opinion, which you can take or leave as you see fit.
One thing I have particularly liked about him is that he also covers what other royals (Charles/Camilla, Cambridges, Wessexes) are doing, when much of the rest of the BM doesn’t bother to give their events much play.
“…the person asked omid when Archie would be getting a sibling and omid said that the Sussex were happy with just Archie and not looking to expand their family, yet we found out a few months later that Meghan had miscarried. I can’t ever forget that .”
Well, even if he was their best friend and official spokesperson, it’s not like he could have just come out and said she had been pregnant and miscarried. Since no one knew (or needs to know) their reproductive plans, to everyone else it did look like they were just happy enjoying their one child and had no plans to expand their family anytime soon, since they hadn’t announced anything. I don’t understand why you hold that statement against him, I think it was a very diplomatic response to a very tacky question.
I would have preferred I have no idea or I am not in their personal lives.I just would rather Harry and Meghan speak for Harry and Meghan. I do think omid is kind to them but at the end of the day he is still trying to sell his book. I hold nothing personally against omid, I don’t know him, I just remember that . I don’t like people speaking for me so I also don’t speak for people.
I mean, I’m sure a lot of this is true, and Omid does have to play the game like the rest of them in order to earn a living.
The only difference is that he was always fair to Meghan in his reporting. That was it. He didn’t do anything special or heroic, he simply covered her the way any responsible, professional journalist covers any subject; he wasn’t constantly publishing horrible lies and trashing her on Twitter like the rest of them. So I can’t fault him for having to operate within that system.
i appreciate that there’s at least one or two royal reporters who aren’t hell-bent on making a name for themselves by constantly slandering h+m. and whatever one thinks of omid, we must remember that he’s often on the receiving end of ugly hate simply for his refusal to be a full-time troll like many of his fellow royal reporters.
i’m not mad about this book coming out – it will likely be read by a way larger base than the anti-sussex books, and at least it’s not an a hit piece against h+m.
however … i find myself agreeing with those who say FF may be rather irrelevant at this point.
the first book, i thought was rather lite-level. i didn’t think we needed to read pages and pages about the sussex’s trips to italy with the clooneys or meg’s fancy baby shower, for example, when these were things that they were heavily criticised for at the time. omid and carolyn could have put some of the events in the book in proper context (like ‘meghan was stressed during her pregnancy and so she was happy to be among friends in NYC’, rather than ‘the shower was in an expensive pentsuite blah blah blah’. another example: we also didn’t need to read about the nanny who was fired in the middle of the night followed by no further explanation by the authors.
i’m not fuming … i just don’t think that kind of ‘inside’ look at h+m’s lives actually helps them in the grand scheme of things.
anyway, at the end of the day, i think this year has made it quite evident that the best people who can speak for harry and meghan *are harry and meghan*. whether it’s just them speaking their truth or telling cute anecdotes about their lives or giving us a look at their home – they can (and should) open up their lives to the extent that they choose, and on their own terms.
the oprah interview + harry’s apple show + dax podcast + upcoming memoir, etc – all of this shows that the sussex messaging is actually best communicated by harry and meghan themselves, rather than through ‘sources’ and royal reporters, however sympathetic they may be.
@Taris I think you just said it perfectly without even realizing it. You’re right: FF didn’t “help” the Sussexes, it reported on events. It wasn’t an “authorized” biography like a lot of the other royals have done, where the book ends up being a glowingly positive hagiography in return for the access the author had, and the ability to claim that the royal authorized it.
That alone disproves most of the criticism of Omid; he doesn’t always blow sunshine up their asses in an attempt to make them look good, he will print something even if it’s somewhat unflattering, like the others do with the BRF. And that’s what he should be doing. Not like the others who refer to Kate as regal and perfect in every single piece they write.
Agree with this assessment. Both about the book ( weak, lukewarm tea) and the current situation of the Sussexes now. The Oprah interview just made such a difference.
It’s important to remember, the original FF was published in August 2020, six months before the Oprah interview, while H&M were, post Sussexit, still basically silent publicly, as they concentrated on establishing their new lives in the US. If FF didn’t contain much new information, or some of what was in the book was incorrect, it did serve to humanize them, Meghan in particular, and provide a competing narrative to the vile stories being spun almost universally by other media outlets (with the help of the Firm). That to me was its major accomplishment, which was extremely important, as was the fact it was so widely publicized and disseminated (in multiple languages). It laid the groundwork for the Oprah interview and everything that came after once H&M did begin to speak, because it let people know early on that there was a whole different way of looking at what was going on with this couple. Whatever the actual intentions of the authors, it did the job it really needed to do.
However, I do agree at this point things have moved on, and the soon to be issued paperback version will be mostly irrelevant, new epilogue or not.
But the statement of “recollections may vary” was from the Queen, right? So criticism of that comment or statement could be construed as criticism of the Queen, which Harry and Meghan seemed to make pains to not do (and make clear in the interview), but then either allowing a “friend” to talk or Omid claiming it’s a “friend” re-assets or a implies it is a criticism and one approved by the couple.
Maybe it’s a small thing but eyes are on them and ppl want to fact check especially after the Oprah interview. Like Meghan or not she’s be right to be upset even if it is deemed small.
@Jules it’s so difficult to parse because we don’t know to what extent the Queen has been sidelined. A staffer wrote that statement, but did she see and approve it in advance? And even if the rule is that she should always approve anything in her name, do the courtiers adhere to that, or do they try to sneak things through sometimes?
We just don’t know and I wish we did because I just think it’s interesting…we know Charles has taken over most of her “important” duties, but we have no idea how much she still does herself, or how much media she herself consumes at this point. I know she (supposedly) used to read each newspaper every morning, but who knows if that’s still the case. She might have totally checked out, psychologically.
Screaming! Look at the pictures of Harry at the polo match!!! Will wait for a post on this I have so much to write and it’s cheered me up so much!