Omid Scobie has given a few new interviews to promote the paperback edition of Finding Freedom. Carolyn Durand stays silent, huh? I think I’ve only seen her interviewed one time during FF’s promotion in total. Omid was on Good Morning America yesterday to chat about FF and what the Sussexes are up to these days, and their general, joyful post-Sussexit vibe. Scobie already told People Magazine that Meghan and Harry are ready for their Thrive Era, but with GMA, he ended up talking a lot about possible reconciliations with the Windsors. Some quotes from his GMA interview:
Harry is still rifting with William and Charles: “When we speak to sources close to the couple and also sources close to the royal family, there is this feeling that very little progress is being made. However, some feelings have subsided because time has done its things, so the door is very much open for those conversations to happen at some point.”
What needs to happen to repair relations: “I think one thing was clear from both sides is that everyone feels that some accountability and ownership in each other’s roles in all of this has to be taken for people to move forward. Whether that happens, we shall see.”
The Thrive Era: “Who can forget Meghan saying, ‘It’s not enough to survive, you have to thrive,’ and I think this is that time where they’re thriving and they want to show the world how they’re doing it,” said Scobie, who describes Harry and Meghan as “very much in control” of their lives today.
On the Sussexes’ privacy: “It’s not that they want to disappear or not be seen. It’s simply that they want to choose what they keep private and what they share with the world.”
The Sussexes were “desperate to get their story out there.” “It was the one thing they weren’t allowed to do, you know, that never complain, never explain mentality, or the mantra of the royal family, applied to them as well. So any time that they wanted to speak up, whether it’s to correct the story in the tabloids or to simply put their feelings and thoughts out there, the answer was always no.” Once Harry and Meghan were on their own, “it was very much the time being now for them to actually speak up and try and speak to some of those moments that many of us perhaps didn’t understand over the last couple of years.”
One of the biggest misconceptions they wanted to address: “There was this feeling that the couple had walked away from the monarchy because they just wanted more. They wanted to earn money in a different way. But actually what we heard was a story that helped us understand why they were so unhappy within that space as well, not only dealing with racism, but having their mental health suppressed or ignored by certain quarters of the institution. Those are things that are untenable for anyone, but we just didn’t know at the time it was happening [that’s what] was going on behind palace walls.”
The courtiers are to blame: In “Finding Freedom,” the authors say it was the courtiers who were fiercely protective of the royal institution and who mishandled Meghan and Harry, who is sixth in line to the throne. “Those that work for the institution of the monarchy have one job, and that is to sort of uphold the values of the crown and maintain the image of the crown. The focus is always going to be on the crown, and Harry and Meghan found themselves victim to that many times over because, ultimately, they are not the crown.”
The new chapter: “The Sussexes are clearly in a new chapter. I feel like we’ve told as much as this story as we can, and they’re clearly in control of their narrative. Now I think that when and if we hear more of their journey towards healing these family relations and the issues that they’ve faced, it’s going to be from them themselves.”
I think this is interesting: “one thing was clear from both sides is that everyone feels that some accountability and ownership in each other’s roles in all of this has to be taken.” The Windsors are truly demanding that Harry and Meghan take “accountability” for their roles in being bullied and smeared into exile, huh? I would imagine that message is coming from Kensington Palace and William’s continued need to scapegoat his brother. Anyway, I know some people grumble about Omid Scobie, but I’m glad at least one royal reporter gives Harry and Meghan the benefit of the doubt.
New details from @scobie’s book “Finding Freedom” give an inside look at Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal life. @ReeveWill speaks one-on-one with the author. https://t.co/LtSgDP4z38 pic.twitter.com/EvZgHA48py
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 31, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
until the UK tabloid media has stopped sanctioned targeting of
Prince Harry’s family he shouldn’t reconcile anything. All this is meant to distract from PA, PC and PW.. and the very serious and real charges of criminal to shady behavior.
Right you don’t make up with people while they are still bearing the snot out of you. I think some relationships are better off ended
“ The focus is always going to be on the crown, and Harry and Meghan found themselves victim to that many times over because, ultimately, they are not the crown.”
That, to me, seems to perfectly sum up a lot of what’s wrong with this family. If you are not in the direct line, you are a human shield, nothing more.
The wearers of the crown better get more interesting then because nobody cares about them. Charles has been unpopular for 25 years, that’s not changing anytime soon. W&K wasted their window of opportunity to make use of their popularity around their wedding but they wasted it on keening and laziness. They’re out here trying to convince people that being workshy is regal. H&M simply filled a void that had been empty since Diana. Popularity does not follow rank and that’s always been the case in the monarchy.
There’s no way the wearers of the crown can get more interesting. They are fundamentally boring people – they cultivate boring and weed out interesting.
@Simon the issue is the Windsors don’t actually want to help the world. Meghan and Harry were not interested in doing work of no substance for the goal of simply keeping up appearances. They fooled Harry into thinking he had some semblance of power bc his actual work pre-Meghan did make the Crown look good. However, getting married introduced a different public dynamic and none of that was going to help the crown at the expense of the actual royals born into this pitiful institution. Meghan was a movement by her American/“common” self, and together they were a force to be reckoned with. They could not compete, so the public had to be told what to think of them, while the institution did everything it could sabotage and torture Harry and Meghan in effort to kill their spirit and joy. Jokes on them tho, bc they have escaped, and if they thought they could not compete before…hmph
If the The Crown had any sense, they should give all future spares the option of either supporting the institution or going off on their own. And if they choose to support themselves, they should be encouraged and not punished for it.
@Snuffles: Unfortunately the Royal Family doesn’t see it that way. What Harry did was a dereliction of duty and an act of disloyalty. His purpose in life was to serve the monarch and to make the Royal Family look good. He was to be the work horse for the monarchy to detriment of his mental and family’s well being. Others have done it before and he should’ve done the same.
@ STRIPE, and the sacrificial lambs as well!
I’ve no complaints with what was said here. It is things that Harry and Meghan have been at pains to explain since they got married. It dawned on me the other day why Harry and Meghan had to set up their own web pages to get points across when they were still working royals. It was because the Palace refused to let them speak. Even the first statement Harry put out when he was first dating Meghan had to be written as if it was coming from Jason Knauf and not Harry himself. That must have been very frustrating for Harry and explains why he now says regrets that he didn’t spoke up more in the beginning. He wasn’t allowed to speak. I’m happy that they are able to live their lives as they chose and to enjoy some privacy which they never had as working royals.
As for reconciliation, I don’t think that will ever happen because the Windsors don’t believe they did anything wrong.
It’s creepy to be that involved in other people’s lives and drama , he’s making a career of it though lol
He is not making a life off the Sussex. He is a royal reporter with a positive view on the Sussex thus the biography. He does not trash the other royals or very slightly. Unfortunately, contrary to many other royal reporters that believe that if you like the crown you have to hate the Sussex.
I will still be waiting for Harry book.
Considering the slander Meghan esp went through with the last book tour from Lacey I’m glad Omid is putting all this out there.
I just keep thinking about the role of the spare and the role of the BM in regards to the monarchy. The BM needs to throw the spare under the bus to prop up the heir. They need leaks to do this half way decent enough.
Now, they have no leaks and no other Royal to attack because Charles and William feel Harry and Meghan are still the spare family and to continue business as usual.
Only the BM is flying blind and it’s hilarious to witness the slow downfall of the already corrupt and broken system.
Everything points to the end of the monarchy. Why prop up something that’s corrupt and crumbling? We can see the financial shenanigans and the terrible people in the royal family (Andrew, anyone?) from all angles now. The gig is up. Harry made the right choice to get out and make a life for himself on his own terms.
The Royal Family and the courtiers think it is the role of royals not in close proximity to the line of succession to serve as a human shield, at least for the first years. They truly expected Harry and Meghan to provide a constant distraction to the Royal Rota . The Sussexes thought they were there to work, not to be offered as blood sacrifice and said “no, thank you”.
Add that their insensitivity to the question of Meghan´s biracial status and what the smear campaign meant to their personal security and mental health. Meghan was supposed to be the Fergie of this generation, completely and utterly dependant on Harry and Harry was to be William´s Anne, the workhorse of the family.
The most generous reading of Charles/William/ courtiers in this case is that they truly resent Harry for leaving, do not understand why they left and are furious they did not get to, in the future, turn them into the new Wessexes, always ready to disappear with the background.
The least generous is that they wanted the marriage to fail , Meghan to be gone and Harry to find himself a blond bimbo.
So if you are not the Crown, take your abuse and shut up like a good minor royal.
It occurs to me that many of us are framing this through the heir/spare dynamic of the spares being used to prop up the crown, especially during difficult times but really that is the dynamic in certain cases- namely when the heir is useless, unpopular, or generally bad at his job. If William had an ounce of charisma this is a different ballgame, even the Queen who paled against her more interesting sister was at least seen as dutiful. Many of these chickens are coming home to roost because of the utter lack of talent, drive, and passion in that family which makes sense because it is an institution founded on tethering power and legitimacy to birth order which is just so grossly out of step with how we think things should work today(this is all very normative because in lots of places where you are born and who to does shape your wealth and life)
I was going to say is this idea of a spare being totally sacrificial just particular to Harry& William in recent times? Because Anne & Andrew certainly seemed to do what they wanted & not aware of talk of them suppressing themselves to make Charles look better. Anne has even taken lots of shots at Charles’ various positions on farming etc through the press.
Where are the examples of Anne being thrown under the bus like a good spare? We’ve all seen how Andrew has been up to shady & possibly illegal things for years but was just awarded medals etc to move the story along. Even now there’s less senior royals I dont even think we even hear much now about how Charles will rely on Anne & Edward when he’s king or how their entire role is to prop him up.
I hope Harry and Meghan don’t subject their children to these abusive people. How can a family despise their own flesh and blood.
Archie and Lilibet could never be left alone with those jerks. They would put all kinds of nonsense in those children head. I personally know when the in-laws don’t like you they don’t like your children. The pandemic is a horrible thing but at least it has protect the Sussex to some degree. I don’t see Meghan running to visit that firm. They hate her because she has Harry’s children and blame her for leaving. I don’t think those of us that invested into this couple was surprise. Hell I knew they couldn’t stay another year in that 💩hole. That xmas QE, PC, PE and PG made it clear they didn’t want the Sussex. William had an article with the Sun stating he wanted them gone. Piers was praised for telling Meghan to “go back to America!” People thought the statement was justified. The firm and media are in bed together. I hope for Harry sake he’s strong enough. It’s got to be hard on him what his family is doing. I wouldn’t respond to anything coming out of England. This fools are going to bully them until death. Meghan will never have peace. They can’t break Meghan. They can’t believe she bounced! They didn’t see it coming. I remember when they were due back from Canada the vultures couldn’t wait! They thought they won. I’m glad Harry is more concern about his children then that firm. I wouldn’t be surprise is a lot of Brits are cheering them on. The monarchy is done. The juvenile behavior that William and Charles have displayed is disgusting. How can you treat your child like crap! The Sussex have more support then hate. I don’t see this firm visiting America anything soon. They have no problem trashing us Yankees! Yet they need us to support their so call charities!
Of course, Harry is strong enough. The hard part was making the break – and now the easy part is to move on. It would be different if he couldn’t set up a successful life, but he’s got everything he wanted, plus family members, like Eugenie and his aunts, with whom he’s still friendly.
I’d be surprised if they EVER met their relatives before I dunno, adulthood.
Scobie is really chewing the scenery with this. I thought we decided he didn’t have any direct sources and they didn’t contribute to the book in the first place.
Dude has definitely ridden this horse hard.