‘Cooked up by ChatGPT’: Reviewers rate Endgame

Omid Scobie opened up about the scathing reaction to Endgame, which reviewers destroyed for it’s relentlessly glowing depiction of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

Omid Scobie broke his silence on the scathing response to Endgame after reviewers slammed the author’s “unique access” to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.

“After all the nonsense written by people who haven’t seen the book, I’m looking forward to everyone actually being able to read #ENDGAME for themselves,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

Scobie this week embarked on a worldwide press tour to promote the release of the book, which promises to air the royal family’s dirty laundry

“Here goes!” he added in the post. “Press begins this morning with @goodmorningamerica (full interview on @nightline) and continues throughout the week.”

While Scobie says he has no direct connection to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, reviewers say Endgame’s gushing praise of couple doesn’t do any “favours” to the claim of independence.

The first US and UK reviews published by The New York Times and The Independent say that Harry and Meghan are painted in a “relentless saintly light” throughout the book.

“Their chapter reads like a press release cooked up by ChatGPT, and does little to shed light on them as humans,” said New York Times reviewer Eva Wolchover, a host of the podcast “Windsors & Losers”.

Endgame author Omid Scobie Picture: Supplied

Endgame promises explosive revelations on the royal family. Picture: Supplied

Royal author Anna Pasternak, meanwhile, wrote in The Independent that Scobie has “unique access” to the House of Sussex and isn’t afraid to burn bridges with new claims of palace intrigue.

“Of course, Scobie has been written off as Meghan and Harry’s mouthpiece, yet it did him no harm as Finding Freedom sold just shy of half a million copies,” Pasternak wrote.

“And the fact that the former royal correspondent is now an outsider, not bound by any usual press pack rules, means he has some interesting things to say.”

But, she added in her three out of five-star review, the “unfailingly sympathetic” Scobie “does not hold them accountable for anything”.

Reviewers took aim at Scobie’s “unique access” to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Picture: Getty Images

The Times in the UK likewise added that “Harry and Meghan emerge glowing with goodness” as Scobie rolls the Sussex circus back into town in the sequel to Finding Freedom. It emerged during litigation that Meghan wrote briefing notes for that unauthorised biography, albeit passed on to Scobie through an aide.

“But to be clear, he barely knows them. He has only concluded that they are wonderful and everyone else is horrid after careful, impartial examination of their notes. Sorry, his notes,” wrote reviewer Hilary Rose.

“The subtitle of the book could be Kate Gets a Kicking. According to Meghan, sorry, my mistake, Scobie, Kate spent more time talking about Meghan than to her, and is terrified of doing anything except smiling for photographers.”

In a non-traditional marketing campaign for the book, advanced copies were sent to “Sussex Squad” social media influencers under nondisclosure agreements, according to the UK’s Telegraph.

One of the bloggers who goes by Kaiser, head writer for the website “Celebitchy”, tweeted her mini review that Endgame had “one of the funniest royal takedowns” she had ever read.

“There are many pieces of new gossip, but mostly it’s a richly detailed narrative about how the institution is antiquated, cruel, ridiculous, etc.,” Kaiser said.

“Scobie is MAULING the Windsors. Like, I’m laughing out loud, it’s soooo good.”

A few hours ago, I signed an NDA to read Omid Scobie's Endgame and I won't spoil anything, but all of you guys complaining about it before you've read it should hold your tongue - Scobie is MAULING the Windsors. Like, I'm laughing out loud, it's soooo good.

— Kaiser@Celebitchy (@KaiseratCB) November 25, 2023

Scobie, for his part, maintains he’s not close to Prince Harry and Ms Markle “despite rumours” and told Good Morning America that he “never chose team Sussex”.

But, he told GMA, he felt he was “caught up in a family drama”.

“Meghan even reached out to him just to check in on him, to see if he was ok,” GMA reported.

“I think before people assume that I'm calling this the end of the royal family, I’m simply declaring that we've reached a sort of pinnacle moment where the royal family as we know it, is at stake.”@Scobie's new book “Endgame" sheds light on the future of the British monarchy. pic.twitter.com/E9kBgmxqwp

— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 27, 2023

Despite the cozy relationship to the Sussex camp, reviews like The New York Times said readers hoping for a “final death blow of gossip will be disappointed”.

“We’ve heard much of it before. From Fergie, from Diana, from Charles, from Harry, from Harry, from Harry again,” they wrote.

“Much of Scobie’s new book is devoted to setting the record straight on petty slights against the Sussexes: exactly who made whom cry at a dress fitting; the double standards applied to royal bridezillas brandishing air freshener.”