Omid Scobie has described Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh’s “Oprah gaffe” as a royal “mistake”.
During an interview with the Telegraph in June 2021, just days after Meghan and Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Edward and his wife, the Countess of Wessex, laughed about Harry and Meghan’s controversial Oprah interview.
In their first major interview together since their wedding in 1999, the royal couple jokingly asked, “Oprah, who?” and “What interview?” when asked if they had seen Harry and Meghan’s bomb fall while they were with with the host of the US chat show. “You know, if you’re not a fan of chat shows, there’s no reason why you should know who she is.” “Definitely not in this country,” Sophie said.
But Omid has claimed that “the comments about the most successful black woman in the world and one of the biggest faces in entertainment made her seem stuffy or tin-eared at best and casually bigoted at worst.”
“Sophie’s Oprah gaffe is another addition to the history of recent mistakes,” Scobie said.
Omid Scobie has described Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh’s “Oprah gaffe” as a royal mistake
For Scobie, Sophie and Edward’s apparent ignorance could serve as evidence that the monarchy is an “intolerant organization full of bigotry and privilege.”
Scobie further claimed that Sophie went out of her way “noticeably” to ignore Meghan Markle outside Westminster Abbey at the late queen’s state funeral.
According to Scobie, it wasn’t just the Duchess of Edinburgh who ignored Meghan, but also Queen Camilla and Kate Middleton.
The Duchess of Sussex was “snubbed and rejected” and fell victim to “the same old power trips” during her stay, the author claims.
The author further claimed that the media often does not give Sophie and Edward the desired level of recognition even during their trip to the Cayman Islands in February 2023.
According to Scobie, their excursion did not reach the Western press and was instead only featured in the Cayman Compass and the Cayman News Service.
Scobie recalled a conversation with a “top Fleet Street editor” about Sophie and Edward, who apparently claimed: “I’d have better luck getting my mother on the front page.”
The author also made a series of shocking claims about Sophie and Edward’s trip to Antigua in March 2022 – where they allegedly “smiled” and “waved” at the audience and called for “apologies and reparative justice” for Britain’s colonization of the Caribbean.
Royal author Omid Scobie gave an interview today that aired on ABC’s Good Morning America
According to the author, the public was instead greeted by a “disinterested” Edward.
Additionally, the author claimed that Edward subsequently insulted the Prime Minister of Antigua, Gaston Browne.
Browne allegedly asked Edward to facilitate “open discussions” on the subject of colonization, to which he allegedly replied, “I didn’t take any notes.”
Omid Scobie today claimed letters between King Charles III and Meghan Markle reveal the names of two people who allegedly commented on Archie’s skin color.
The royal author, whose new book Endgame is published at midnight tonight, said he could not reveal the identities of the two people for fear of legal reprisals in the UK.
However, he said that letters were exchanged between Charles and Meghan following the allegation in the Sussexes’ bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
In an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” today, Mr. Scobie was asked if he knew who made the comments about Archie’s skin color.
He said: “I know who made the comments about Archie’s skin color.” The names were mentioned in letters between Meghan and Charles exchanged some time after the Oprah interview.
Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame, about the royal family is due out tomorrow
“We know from sources that Charles was horrified that Meghan felt this way. These were conversations and he wanted to have this conversation with her, so to speak on behalf of the family.
“And that’s why I personally think, in hindsight, they were able to move forward with some sort of line of communication, even though they may not agree on that.”
Mr Scobie’s claims threaten to reignite the “royal racists” row that erupted after Harry and Meghan’s interview.
Meghan had claimed in the TV special that an unnamed member of the royal family had spoken about “how dark his (Archie’s) skin might be when he is born”.
However, it is now claimed that a second member of the extended royal household – who may not be a member of the royal family itself – has made similar comments.
King Charles III attended St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk yesterday
The two people are not mentioned by name in “Endgame,” which is subtitled “Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival.”
The book makes a number of claims about the royals and looks at their future following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September last year.
And Mr Scobie added to the ABC: “I think before people assume that I’m calling this the end of the royal family, I’ll just explain that we’ve reached a sort of climax where the royal family as we know it, Is at stake.’
He also claims Prince William leaked stories about Harry.
Mr Scobie said: “He shared private information about his brother which not long later ended up on the front page of a newspaper. “These are things that have caused irreparable damage to their relationships.”
He described William as a “man of society” and said: “We have seen the emergence of a man much tougher, who seems to have embraced and embodied the royal institution.”
The ABC report also states that Harry is ready to end the rift between William, who has been trying to get in touch with his brother, and that relations with his father Charles “may be on the mend.”
Mr Scobie said: “There is a constantly open line of communication between the two of them where they can talk to each other. “Whereas Harry, I would say, clearly understands that his father is probably not the most emotional or open person.”
The report on ABC said that as part of his interview, Mr Scobie also claimed that he felt he was involved in family drama – and that Meghan had contacted him to check he was OK.
ABC claimed Mr Scobie also said he was not that close to Harry and Meghan and that he “never chose Team Sussex”.
William, Harry, Meghan and Charles speak together at Westminster Abbey in March 2019
Meghan, Harry, William and Kate on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in July 2018
The interview will air tomorrow night on Nightline.
Mr Scobie today tweeted a link to the interview on day #ENDGAME.’
Mr Scobie’s book is said to make a number of allegations involving the Sussexes – including that William was involved in “things that were circulating about his own brother” and that the older brother ignored text messages from Harry when the family broke up on the way to Balmoral before the late Queen died last year.
Claims in the book include that there is a rift between the king and William, that Queen Camilla has “quietly thanked Piers Morgan for defending the company” and that a shy Princess of Wales needs to be encouraged to make commitments enter into .