I get the feeling that Omid Scobie is deep into writing his latest royal book, End Game, which is due out this summer. Which means his Yahoo UK column is not coming out with the regularity it once was. I’ve always enjoyed his columns, especially when he spills some tea, however lukewarm. This week’s Yahoo piece is great, because Scobie picked up on something I only saw yesterday: that the Earl and Countess of Wessex were on a Caribbean tour all week and they had gotten next to no coverage in the British media. Scobie uses that fact to illustrate the larger point, which is that the British media is still obsessively focused on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The Wessexes’ Caribbean tour this week: You probably don’t know this, but for the past four days Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex have been on an action-packed royal tour of the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos. The tropical locale and busy itinerary should have provided royal reporting gold, especially after the couple have been hailed by the British media as the family’s “secret weapon” and “central figures” for the future of the monarchy. But, despite the hype, no one – including said press – appears to be watching. Instead, media outlets have kept the focus on a couple they repeatedly call irrelevant – Harry and Meghan.

Obsessed British media: Bar a few promotional appearances for the Duke of Sussex’s release of Spare, the couple hasn’t been seen in public for months. But despite the lack of fresh news from Team Sussex to pour over, it hasn’t stopped sections of the press from obsessing over them on a daily basis. Although King Charles, Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales have all been busy carrying out engagements, almost the entirety of this week’s royal news cycle has centred around fictitious claims and breathless commentary on the Sussexes.

The South Park episode: According to one newspaper, it spells “the beginning of the end” for the couple’s popularity in the US. “A clear sign their star has fallen,” wrote another, who has clearly never seen South Park before. Given that other celebrities lampooned by the show include Tom Cruise, Oprah, the Queen (killed in a 2007 episode that quickly got banned in the UK), William and Kate, Hillary Clinton and Jennifer Lopez, I have a feeling they will be just fine.

The Spectator article was full of lies: Meghan, according to The Spectator, was supposedly left “upset and overwhelmed” for several days by the episode. The “California sources” quoted in the article, however, must have been drunk or high, because none of it is actually true. Claims that the Archewell founders are planning to sue the show’s creators, a rumour that first started life on an obscure YouTube channel but somehow ended up on a British broadcast news network, also turned out to be nothing more than fantasy. “Nonsense,” a spokesperson for the duke and duchess told People magazine. “Totally baseless, boring reports.”

Scobie spoke to a friend & a rep of the Sussexes, who gave some responses to various stories: “Going through tough times” (false – “Couldn’t be happier!” said a friend). That they just hired “showbiz dealmaker” Adam Lilling to help “go all-out” on becoming billionaires (not quite – the entrepreneur’s venture advisor company Plus Capital has been working with the pair since moving to the US almost three years ago and it’s “old information and not news”, according to an Archewell spokesperson). Details about Meghan’s impending return to Instagram were shared in a lengthy broadsheet essay (wishful thinking – a source says she has no account on the platform at present or on the horizon. “This is all trash,” added the rep)

All of the exclusives about the Sussexes attending the Chubbly: The reality, sources tell me, is that no-one, no matter how well-sourced, knows their plans right now – the couple has yet to be invited and can’t make a decision, nor any form of itinerary, until that happens.

All of the Sussex news in the British media points to a larger problem: At this point, much of the above is typical tabloid fare – news of this nature, even when totally false, still gets the clicks, and revenue, that publishers desperately need. But it also speaks to a bigger issue that Britain’s other oldest institution is currently facing – the lives and work of the Royal Family just isn’t grabbing the attention of readers and viewers as they once did. When you realise that the only other royal story this past week to receive even a fraction of the volume of Sussex headlines were articles about the Princess of Wales’s Bafta red carpet outfit, it becomes clear that The Firm might just have a public interest crisis on their hands.

Back to the Wessexes: As Sophie and Edward fly back to Britain on Friday, the couple and their team might be questioning whether their barely-covered visit was truly worth it. And for an overseas trip that came at a cost to the struggling British taxpayer (in security alone), the bigger risk is that soon members of the public will start asking the same.

[From Yahoo UK]

My question about the Wessexes’ trip is: did they travel without media on purpose, or did the Rota simply decline to cover the trip? The fact that the only photos are available through government channels speaks to the notion that this Caribbean tour is being tightly managed. So who made that call? The Wessexes, King Charles or the media? I’m genuinely curious. As for the rest of it, yes, Scobie is pointing out the obvious, which is that three-years-plus after the Sussexit, the media is still single-mindedly obsessed with all things Sussex. I love that the Archewell rep went on the record about a couple of things too – “this is all trash” about Camilla Tominey’s ridiculous Telegraph article about Meghan’s Instagram account, and the fact that the Sussexes have been working with that money guy for three years.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instar.