The Independent got their hands on the new paperback edition of Finding Freedom, the version with the new updated epilogue about what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been up to in the past two years. Obviously, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand didn’t write the epilogue to be a comprehensive account of 2020 and 2021, but they wanted to spill just enough tea to get people to buy the new edition. So what’s in the epilogue? Some interesting stuff about Harry requesting a wreath to be laid at the Cenotaph, only to be denied by the Queen. Stuff about the Oprah interview. And stuff about Philip’s funeral. You can read the Independent’s coverage here. Some highlights:
The wreath on Remembrance Day 2020: In Finding Freedom, the authors claim that a red poppy wreath had been ordered for Prince Harry with the Royal British Legion. “But as the day came and went, Harry’s gesture remained in its box at the charity’s headquarters in Kent.” Scobie and Durand go on to allege that Harry’s request was denied because he was no longer a “frontline royal”, with a “close source” to the Duke adding that he was “saddened and disappointed by the decision”. The source added: “Ten years of service and a lifetime commitment to the military community and this is how it’s been acknowledged by his family.”
William’s reaction to the Oprah interview: In Finding Freedom, the authors write that, according to their sources, William “was understood to be ‘furious’ that private family matters were being discussed in the public domain” and will most likely not comment on the claims made in the Oprah interview again.
How Meghan felt after the Oprah interview: A friend of Meghan’s told the authors that the Oprah interview was “cathartic” for the duchess. “All the things she had kept to herself or been too afraid to say [as a working member of the royal family] she felt safe to finally share. It was liberating,” they added. The authors also claim that no one in the royal family knew about the Oprah interview until it was announced publicly.
The bullying accusations: The allegations were reported four days before the Oprah interview was due to air. “Though the duchess was used to defamatory reports, this front-page story was more worrying,” write the Finding Freedom authors, who claim that the allegations gave the Sussexes more confidence in their decision to leave the royal family. A friend of the couple, meanwhile, told the authors: “It felt like certain individuals at the Palace were doing their very best to undermine and discredit anything they worried the couple may or may not say during the interview.”
The Sussexes’ second wedding anniversary: The epilogue claims that Harry and Meghan had a low-key celebration for their second wedding anniversary last May, when lockdown restrictions were still in place in California. Instead of going out, the couple chose to spend the day remembering their 2018 nuptials with people who had been involved in the ceremony, and concluded the festivities with a Mexican takeaway from a local restaurant. They also exchanged cotton-based gifts, as is traditional for second wedding anniversaries.
How Harry felt at Prince Philip’s funeral: In Finding Freedom, a close source to Harry described the funeral as “surreal” for him, while another noted that, in terms of his relationship with the rest of the royal family, there had been “progress” and “efforts on all sides”. Another added that there is more to be done in terms of mending relationships, but the visit Harry made to the UK for the funeral had “broken the ice”.
The Windsors were happy that Meghan didn’t come to the funeral: In Finding Freedom, the authors claim that several members of the royal family were “understood to have been ‘quietly pleased’” that Meghan did not attend because they “didn’t want a circus” or, as one senior royal source said, “the Duchess creating a spectacle”.
Meghan was what? Just a month away from giving birth at the time of Philip’s funeral? There was no way she would have traveled to the UK for that reason alone, and I don’t even know why she needed that excuse. She could have just shrugged and said “nope” and everyone would have understood. And it wouldn’t be “Meghan creating a spectacle,” it would have been “the British tabloids and the Windsors creating a spectacle around Meghan.” The woman breathes and she’s got ten royal commentators writing 2000-word screeds about how she’s the devil.
As for the rest of it… Harry is fine, he understands that his family is trash and he has too much of a soft spot for his grandmother, who is the one who refused to have his Remembrance Day wreath laid at the Cenotaph. Of course William’s reaction to the Oprah interview was fury – I suspect he was engorged with rage for months about it. And yes, the bullying claims were just the royals’ way of “discrediting” Meghan.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Again, they keep worrying about the wrong Duchess.
Exactly. Kate Middleton is the one that made a spectacle of Phillips funeral. With her car pic that her friend Chris Jackson took, her using the funeral to push the peacemaker narrative. They need to worry about her not Meghan.
I kind of think she actually damaged herself with that idiotic funeral fashion shoot.
@Matthew, I think you are right. It seems like William changed toward her publicly after that. She was not allowed at the fakakta statue unveiling and I think her performance at the funeral was part of it. I believe William, for all his copious faults, cared for his grandfather and was very unhappy with Kate co-opting a major, personal moment for his family. He punished her and I’m not sure he’s finished doing that.
Let’s not forget Sophie and Edward doing the most to turn Philip’s death into their moment in the spotlight.
Yup. What was their advice to Meghan when she was basically on house arrest, “be less you”? Or be less present? Or just be less? Something like that. They should have just taken that advice and applied it to everyone except her (with the exception of Anne and Camilla) because … damn.
If the “Firm” were an actual Firm, I feel like the investors would have called for a change in leadership after letting an asset like Meghan get away. They have to realize what a monumental failure this was, at least on some level.
I will never look at the royal family with anything other than distaste and disgust.
💯! All respect has been lost for this family of racist, classist, trash. I view them like one would view a circus now.
Same. I cannot believe how fooled I was by the queen’s act.
I guess they weren’t Zoom chatting until after the funeral since they were happy Meghan wasn’t there 🙄😒
“In Finding Freedom, the authors write that, according to their sources, William “was understood to be ‘furious’ that private family matters were being discussed in the public domain”
GHEE William if that is the case maybe YOU shouldn’t have spent the better half of 2018 and all of 2019 bullying your sister in law and your little brother through the press.
Also this is straight up bullshit. Meghan is the last person to make a spectacle. You know who did make a spectacle tho? Kate middleton. She made the whole funeral about her and her “peacemaking” self. Plus she spent the time posing for camera’s
And don’t forget Walmart’s – ahem, friends – happily briefing Robert Lacey, that Meghan was an unhinged sociopath & narcissistic b*tch.🤐🤐
There were stories about kate middleton planning to “ban” the sussexes to africa. Kp staff leaked all the nasty names they called meghan behind the scenes. And william was loud and proudly running to the press to say how “embarrassed” he was by the couple, how engorged with rage he always is at them and all the ways he was banning meghan from wearing any jewelry that she actually had a right to wear. In other words they were proudly leaking all the ways they made her feel like an outsider but meghan is the bully?
@pao I was just going to say. Doesn’t leaking to the tabloids about all the drama around Meghan and her dad and “Meghan made Kate cry” bs count as leaking private family drama on to public domain? Or how about when he moans and whines like a big baby every two seconds and the rest of the world has to hear about it?
And people really want to the crown to be hand straight to this guy?!
@ Layla, well put!! And I love, love your name!! Baldimort hasn’t been able to keep his anger in check for the last three years, but he’s suitable to be king? Maybe of Sherwood Forrest, but not of countries!!
It was always this way too, remember Commonwealth Day? Where Keen let the mask slip publicly and Sophie was right there along for the ride on their racist bandwagon?
The Trumpian projection is strong with these people. Especially William! But since he’s a moron with awful instincts when it comes to PR, it’s extremely transparent.
I get so tired of the history re-writing where the Sussexes are concerned. Meghan was too close to Lili’s delivery to travel at the time of Philip’s funeral. The funeral did not “break the ice,” nor was there “progress on all sides,” proven by the continued estrangement (I’ll buy “surreal”). And while stranger things have happened, I don’t buy for a minute that Keen and Meghan are Zooming, or that Harry and Bulliam are beginning to talk.
Glad you’re in the States, H & M. Stay away from Salty Isle, for your health and the health of your children.
I hope, if she returns to the UK at all, that neither she nor her children ever set foot in a royal palace or attend a royal event ever again. They don’t deserve her or Harry. They offered no hospitality, support, or familial love.
Could not agree more !!!! These folks do not deserve them.
The British royal family is TRASH. What can I say, they can keep their pedo and pedo-sympathizers.
There was room for only one star at this funeral; the masked future queen, waitie katie.
You mean the deceased doesn’t even get to be “the star” of his own funereal? Isn’t that where the old expression comes from? They say that some people (hey, Kate) feel the need to be the center of every wedding and every funereal. Poor, stiff Philip.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth, one of the all-time great Mean Girls, said of her father, Theodore Roosevelt: “My father always wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening.” When Teddy gave Alice away at her wedding, all eyes were on him, not her, poor thing. Then again, it was allegedly she who first said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, come sit by me.”
I’m sure Meghan was just as pleased not to have to see those people again as well. She and Archie and the dogs had a pleasant time sitting under the tree of their private house and 197 bathrooms and were just as happy and peaceful as could be.
And I’ll bet she was just as pleased not to be the subject of their animosity and abuse on British turf while heavily pregnant with Lili as it was with Archie. I’m sure once was quite enough.
197 bathrooms 😂
Maybe its because you printed these stories one after another, but the royal family to me is just the Duggars with more money, history and inbreeding.
Trash.
There are a lot of similarities to be sure.
I’ve come to view them as exactly like the Markles, but gilded and wealthy. In terms of their behavior, there is absolutely no difference; both constantly running to trash tabloids and no family loyalty whatsoever.
For a family so concerned with class, it’s ironic that they don’t have any.
I’ve come to see them as a just another toxic family with issues like so many other families.
When you have toxic in-laws the best thing is to get away…which is what they did. Good for them
The bullying claims were absolutely supposed to discredit Meghan, but I think it ended up working out in her favor in terms of the actual interview, because it just proved everything she said – how they were attacking her in the press, how they were willing to lie to protect others but weren’t willing to tell the truth to protect her, and of course, that quote that Oprah’s team put out basically as soon as that Times story broke – about how can the Firm expect her to remain silent when they continue to brief against her in the press.
As for the rest- sure. I’m sure Harry was upset that his wreath wasn’t put on display (since we know it WAS made and ready to go), I’m sure the interview was cathartic for Meghan in many ways, i’m sure they had a low key second anniversary considering there was a global pandemic, etc.
And I am also sure that many royals were glad that she did not attend Phillip’s funeral regardless of the reason, especially Kate. She didn’t want ANY competition that day…..
but it really does just go to show that she was never welcomed or accepted as part of the family, which is really sad, even if they are much better off for it now.
Also pretty much everybody saw that for what it was. The amount of people who called out Buckingham palace and said that the timing was suspicious brought me joy. And that all done by staff that didn’t even get a mention in the oprah interview. I keep thinking about how badly they must have treated her for them to panic this hard every time she speaks.
That Times story was SO obvious that I think it really did open people’s eyes to what was going on behind the scenes, which probably was not the intention, ha. But remember that story included the bit about the earrings from MBS and how Meghan was condoning murder and then the story about the UN women from Fiji and people were like….”wait where do the rest of the royal jewels come from?” It was such a bad move that we know it had to come from KP.
And yes, all that for Meghan to never once mention Jason Knauf or Melissa T., just “the firm” and “the institution.”
@Pao: It would have been better if KP had not accused Meghan of bullying because she didn’t mention anything about the staff as they had feared and it only raised suspicions about Meghan’s bad treatment by staff and its Principals at KP.
@becks1 @Amy Bee: i saw a tweet that said: “who’s going to investigate Buckingham Palace for the bullying of Meghan Markle?” . And it was just so spot on. It was a viral tweet too.
However i hope meghan doesn’t let this one go. I want her to take KP staff to the cleaners (legally). Idk what she would have to do to do it (like does she sue staff individually or kp as a whole). But i want her to do it. She deserves to clear her name.
When Meghan McCain is pointing out that the bullying claims were just meant to discredit Meghan, you have lost control of the narrative. The whole thing was Wiliiam and Jason Knauf and it made it painfully clear that William is inept.
William was born on third base and thinks he hit a home run when he’s really hopelessly in over his own head. Not everyone is going to be as spineless and compromised as Prince Charles, and when he faces the real world, William loses every time.
@Pao: Meghan’s definitely not letting it go. BP wanted to publish the results of the investigation in the annual report. But apparently Meghan’s lawyers put a stop to that because no account of her side of the story was taken. KP is not exempt from legal action so I hope Meghan sues them after the investigation is over.
@Amy Bee: if they wanted to publish the results in the annual report then that means that dumb investigation is already over and done with. And it didn’t take until 2022 like the royals initially claimed. So i hope we hear more from this soon.
These are very private people, like okay?
The royal family keeps saying they never complain, never explain and are super private. And yet Charles, Wills & Co keep running to the press behind “sources” and briefing against H&M and each other every day.
Very private people? haha! The Royal family is the definition of very public, always airing their dirty laundry whenever they need to distract from something like Andrew’s pedo crimes and Prince Michael’s treason.
I never want to hear these assho!es boast about how they “Never explain, never complain” ever again
“the Duchess creating a spectacle”…do they mean like Duchess McButtons and her fashion photo shoot before the funeral? That kind of spectacle? Because the Duchess of Sussex has never shown anything other than grace and decorum while she was a senior royal.
These people are just so gross (RRs and BRF to be clear).
Exactly. Meghan is the duchess who never put a wrong foot.
But Kates photo shoot at the funeral was perfectly acceptable? lol. The only “spectacle” is how rabid the tabloids and RR are on the Isle to print anything Meghan and the nasty viscousness of the fake stories they regurgitate for mindless consumption should be criminal.
Funny how they are all making a profit on Meghans name and works while vilifying her in the print and media, when she has done nothing to them whatsoever. They are all parasitic.
Katie keen one woman it’s all about me show says hello. If they is one good thing to come out if that family treatment towards Meghan and Harry, it’s that Harry took action and got the f out. That family of dessert rats will forever be dirt to me and no amount of palaces or jewels will ever change my opinion of them . I despise them all. So glad Harry and Meghan and their children are happy and away from all that.
Meghan making a spectacle? Like the Wessexes and their grief tour, trying to make themselves relevant so that they don’t have to give up that 120 room mansion they are currently living in. I wonder how many bathrooms Bagshot Park has? Or Katie Keen and all the articles about her being the lynchpin and the peacemaker?
Kate made a spectacle at the funeral instead. Yeah, nothing earth shattering in the epilogue.
The royal family, institution will forever be tantruming that Harry didn’t want to stay with them in their toxic dysfunctional despair. How dare Harry reject their racism, bitterness and spiteful way of life!
I read this book when it first came out and was underwhelmed by it, in that I don’t think it did enough due diligence journalistically or give much analysis or context to both the racism and the coordination of press attacks against the Sussexes. Also, the first third of the book was too flowery on the romance bit and just nonsense about safaris and shoe shopping. It’s just a compilation of what we’ve been seeing in the headlines, trying to make it look like fresh news. Again it seems to try to focus all the heat on Meghan. The funeral comment seems unnecessarily cruel and these people, on all sides, just seem so exploitative of her. All these people thinking the Sussexes are going to emerge in the fall because they want to see Meghan, I hope she stays low key because everyone circles this woman like buzzards. Reading these updates just infuriates me and comes across as baiting and exploitative. There’s only so much one individual can take.
It’s hard enough to write a book as events are unfolding, but to do so whilst trying not to rock the boat? Yeah, it was no Tina Brown Diana biography. Now that’s a book. I read it every few years.
The update seems nothing but hurtful to Meghan. I, too, thought Scobie’s book was poorly written, and in fact, I did not finish it. I’m amazed that it is selling as well as it is- I think people are just very interested in Meghan and Harry’s story. Scobie still has to straddle the fence if he wants to remain a royal reporter. Perhaps he should become a real journalist, and give up the royal gig.
Not absolving Omid from anything here but lets not forget he has a co-author who is very much team royalty so to speak.
the book was poorly edited, that’s for sure. I remember there were some sentences that repeated themselves in the same paragraph, words left out, etc. I think they were in a rush to get it out with Sussexit and it ended up being messy like that.
I also think that we (Sussex fans, or even just pretty serious royal followers) were not the target audience. I like that he did shoot down some of the headlines or provide a different take (although sometimes those takes were false….) so I think if you were just a People mag royal follower the book may have been more eye opening, or at least interesting. I read it and thought it was fine, but I didn’t get anything new out of it.
@Becks ITA about the target audience. There was nothing in there that many of us here hadn’t already been hearing about on a daily basis and could have practically recited by then, so many of us ended up disappointed in it.
You’re exactly right that it was for the casual fan who would have been reading a lot of those things for the first time. We’d already been beaten over the head with all of it for years, lol. It was totally geared towards the People-magazine-reading demographic.
Kate made the spectacle, in fact she made an absolute fool of herself — a grandstanding, over-dressed, over-bejeweled and utterly useless fool.
She did. That necklace is evening jewelry and was all wrong for the small neckline of the coatdress (yawn) she wore. The dress obscured some of the necklace, which was designed to be worn with a wide neckline evening dress. Less is more. The earrings alone would’ve been sufficient, but no … look at me in the queen’s necklace and my mask!
What do you mean Jaded? How could using a grandfather’s/grandfather-in-law’s funeral as the backdrop for one’s glamour shots photo shoot be considered a spectacle? I’m sure it inspired many of her sycophants to do the same thing and will become a global trend.
And, I can’t believe I managed to type that without completely gagging.
Chef’s kiss!!
I am very disappointed in Scobie. It is cruel and untrue to say that Meghan makes a spectacle. The spectacle is the virulent misogynoir that is spewed by the rota every time she does anything.
Agree. These excerpts are just gross and misogynistic. Every time something comes up with the royals, the first question is will Meghan be there. She will overshadow and upstage them all. Then if she doesn’t come it’s she’s shamelessly snubbing them or afraid to show her face. Never mind the realities of Covid, pregnancy and postpartum, or maybe these events having nothing to do with her and she has no reason to travel. Sick of this at this stage and all these vile people.
Omid didn’t say that, Harry’s “family” is alleged to have said that. Or, more likely, one of the courtiers said that. Like they expected Meghan to do cartwheels or something. When really they should have been checking for Mrs. Cambridge, who showed up cosplaying Greta Garbo.
It doesn’t matter who said it, writing it in this way gives it an air of legitimacy which is very harmful to Meghan.
@ MJM, I agree as well. Scobie and Durand should have gone at their jugular, none of this pussyfooting around!! This book has done nothing but to reinforce what we already knew, regards to non stop, mercilessly attacking Meghan out as the bully before the Oprah interview. In addition to TQ refusing Harry’s wreath laying, this is all old news. The royal family all have their handprints all over the ongoing smear campaign against Harry and Meghan, including Chaz.
The two people who are most intimidated and jealous of Harry and a Meghan has been and will always be The Lambridges!
Imagine your father/grandfather just died and your emotional focus is feeling smug about who isn’t invited to the funeral.
Easy to imagine in a family of vultures who don’t love their family and are always trying to one-up each other in the blandest, most unattractive ways.
Well put @ Chaine. That really says it all.
Every single one of these “exclusives” are pulled from tabloid stories we’ve already heard – there is absolutely nothing new, just regurgitated, repurposed tabloid fodder. It’s mindblowing to me that Omid (and basically-a-ghost-Durand) has banked enough to retire on from essentially compiling scraps from “sources” already on the record. It’s an annotated bibliography of Sussex slander and speculation, nothing more.
@Sunday I kind of don’t understand why Durand was even involved at all? It’s been Scobie promoting it, defending it, making clarifications, etc. since day one.
So I may be way off base here, but has Scobie changed his course a bit, recognizing that his job as a “royal reporter,” and, eh, Meghan/Harry no longer being on that continent and doing the royal stuff that warrants “royal reporting,” he needs to retain his job and thus going a little more pro-BRF? It feels like a switch to me, I can’t put a finger on it. I guess it makes sense from a career perspective for him, as his connections were pro-Sussex sources, and he needs to develop new sources/connections/etc as H+M are in US. Also—not justifying, just noting.
I think its the publisher/editor, not Scobie. His twitter is pretty pro-Sussex and he pushes back against the RRs quite a bit. So remember these quotes are a) just what has been excerpted and b) what made it into the book.
@Susan, I’m not sure? Omid has always covered the other royals’ engagements, but his coverage of the Sussexes was all that ever got any attention. You could be right though. Nothing about any of these people would surprise me at this point.
Duplicate post; sorry!
They were quiet about it?
Right, lol. It seems all they were talking about was sneering how “convenient” her pregnancy was in preventing her from coming, how glad they were she wasn’t there, speculating whether she was live streaming it, and the uproar about the uniforms.
The only book I am interested I. Reading about Harry and Meghan is the one that they write. I will respectfully wait for Harry memoir, I am good with whatever he wants to share because I know for a fact it will be the absolute truth
“You didn’t break up with ME, I broke up with YOU!”
These salty inbred racists are exhausting.
“creating a spectacle” … by breathing… or walking dressed in black.
No, they are happy the savior of the monarchy went to picture day on that funeral celebration. No competition.
If Meghan hadn’t been pregnant and went , Oh, the outrage!, if she hadn’t been there, same.
For sure. Or her black coat would have been the wrong shade of black or blacker than the queen’s coat or her hat would have been too big or too fancy and she was obviously trying to “upstage the Queen!” I’m sure the press had the narrative all written out.
For some…her skin was the wrong shade for Philip’s funeral. Sadly.
Exactly. Megan just has to show up to upstage all these losers.
Of course he was furious, that’s his only setting lol. What a miserable little man.
Who are they kidding? The chumps in that clown car were disappointed as hell at missing another chance to malign her.
@ nicki, yes! A lost chance to malign Meghan and for KKKate to “put her in her place”, in regards to pecking order.🙄
Her attendance would have turned into a spectacle alright, but only because every single one of these rags would have made it about her, with 800 stories a day — then they’d bitch about how she’s an attention whore. THEY are the ones creating the spectacle. FGS how do they not see how pathetic they are?
The point about Meghan feeling liberated was from Janina’s interview after the Oprah interview. As posters have said a lot of the epilogue seems to be rehashing what the tabloids reported or what’s been in the media already.
The press are the ones who make everything about Meghan and make whatever she does or does not do a spectacle. A lot of the pre funeral reporting was about Meghan’s absence with royal experts disgustingly saying how she was using her pregnancy as an ‘excuse’ not to fly. If she was there the press would have made her the main event especially with her pregnancy & then turned around to complain about her stealing the spotlight etc.
The royals made the funeral a spectacle with so much leaking on Harry & wearing uniforms etc, Andrew trying to make a comeback with a BBC interview, Edward & Sophie doing a promo tour on the back of Philip’s death, the press promoting Kate as the great peacemaker & her playing her part. She also had plenty of time for posing.
The bullying review etc & the aftermath of Oprah with the obvious posing with black people, getting every black person they had come across to say the royals aren’t racist was so heavy handed it was complete amateur hour. It also immediately proved the point about Meghan being unprotected as we all saw how heavily the royals defended themselves with various royals doing PR interviews after Oprah.
Also it was gross that there updates about Philip’s status in hospital that seemed to be timed with any new clips from the interview. The press were clearly gunning to blame Meghan especially for Philip’s death & in some articles they did imply the interview was to blame for his passing.
It seems like every time the Sussexes are emerging from the cloud of being working royals and just moving forward with their lives , some loser brings this stuff up again and drags them back into the tabloid mess. Putting this stuff out is just stirring up more hate toward them, not that it takes much. I find it really irresponsible on the part of these authors. They could have simply reported what happened since they left in chronological order without bringing in all this speculation and interpretation of what they think the Sussexes thought, writing what seems to be in a deliberately provocative manner to get the most outraged headlines. For example, the Janina clip you mentioned, which has suddenly become a “ source”. There is a headline saying they were going to name the person who asked about Archie, even though they clearly said in the Oprah interview they’d never reveal who said that. Just disgusted. I have Scobie on mute in Twitter because his royal reporting is so saccharine and he acts like he has more Sussex insider access than I actually think he does. However, he for the most part seems fairly reasonable and will mention the Andrew stuff ( they’re all first and foremost going after that scoop though). However, there are some Squaddies who absolutely loathe him, and today I see why.
And some weeks later, Fergie is out giving interviews and being a guest of the Queen.
That photo of Kate posing was in such bad taste. Yet the media says nothing
They were also “quietly pleased” when Diana died. Because that’s the kind of trash they are.
I do believe, meghan is quietly and tremendously happy that she didnt attend the funeral.
We all were relieved she did not come.