Omid Scobie refuses to apologise to royal family over Endgame ‘publicity stunt’

Omid Scobie said the buck doesn’t stop with him after the biggest loose end in Endgame was accidentally answered in the Dutch language edition of the bombshell book.

Omid Scobie refused to apologise to the royal family when pressed on whether two were named in the Dutch version of Endgame as a “publicity stunt”.

Speaking to the BBC, which repeated the two royals named after Piers Morgan broke the taboo in UK media, Scobie swore on the life of his family that the identities weren’t slipped into a foreign language version to boost sales.

“It’s not for me to apologise because I still want to know what has happened,” he said. “[The buck] doesn’t stop with me because there are irresponsible people in this country that have broken the law and repeated names that should never have been repeated.

“The book I wrote does not have names in it.

“Ultimately to write the names, it’s a show and tell situation. There’s no ability to show, so there was never an attempt to name.”

Asked whether it was a publicity stunt, Scobie said he was hurt by the “conspiracy theories” that it was all a ruse to promote the release of Endgame.

“On my life, on my family’s life,” he said.

'A book I was extremely proud of... now overshadowed'

Omid Scobie describes the fallout of a royal family race row sparked by his latest book Endgame. https://t.co/nsTbPkSrNo
#Newsnightpic.twitter.com/XOuKkyWkup

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 30, 2023

“All of this is frustrating because it feeds into something that couldn’t be further from the truth. And also, quite frankly, I’ve always felt the names weren’t needed to have this discussion”.

The BBC’s Radio 4 Today program announced the names to its listeners just an hour after saying they would not disclose them.

Senior news executives are understood to have decided after multiple British newspapers followed Piers Morgan in repeating the claims.

WHO LEAKED THE NAMES?

Of all the cliffhangers, loose ends and unanswered questions of Endgame, the most glaringthat remains is who, exactly, is dishing the royal family’s sordid laundry to author Omid Scobie; if not Meghan Markle herself.

After this week’s publication, readers now know the identity of the infamous royals who remained a mystery since the accusations were first made in an interview with Oprah.

But it’s the saintly glow that Scobie bathes the Duchess of Sussex in, even as she remains conspicuously dry amid all the spilt tea, that has led to continued questions of whether he’s little more than a Montecito mouthpiece.

“I’m very tired of the ‘Meg’s pal’ stuff,” Scobie says.

“I feel like it’s a force that I can’t even stop … no matter how many times I explain that I’m not her friend … there’s always going to be a million people still calling me ‘Meg’s pal’.”

Facing continued questions about how involved the House of Sussex was in the creation of Endgame, and his previous book Finding Freedom, Scobie offered where he was getting such insider knowledge of Ms Markle’s machinations.

“There’s enough people around them and in their orbit who know the ins and outs of things,” he said in response to the specificity of detail in Endgame about Prince Harry’s flight to the Queen’s deathbed.

While Scobie did not respond to a request for comment, he revealed in an interview with The Evening Standard in the UK that he was in contact with those people in the Sussex “orbit”, adding that he hasn’t met Ms Markle more than a few times.

“I’m not out here and in California living in Montecito, all of that is just complete nonsense,” he said of his presence in the United States to promote the book this week.

Omid Scobie takes a selfie with Endgame while on a press tour to promote the book’s launch. Picture: Instagram

“The reality is that there’s no friendship there.”

“If there’s ever been a private encounter with Meghan, I’ve spoken about it.”

Scobie says his sources are the same as any “great reporting” from a royal correspondent, insider contacts, palace aides and “mutual friends”, while also not denying he received briefings from team Sussex.

Scobie also credits his “natural knack for lip-reading”, which he says he picked up working for gossip magazines Us Weekly and Heat Magazine.

Scobie’s rebuke has done little to dissuade the belief that Ms Markle looms behind the Endgame curtain given she previously apologised to a UK court for misleading statements over “briefing notes” given to an aide speaking with the authors of Finding Freedom.

Here are the biggest open questions, loose ends and cliffhangers that remain unanswered following the publication of Endgame.

WHO LEAKED THEIR IDENTITIES?

Scobie says the two identities were revealed in letters written between Ms Markle and King Charles shortly after the Oprah interview, where the claims were first made.

How did Scobie get a hold of said letters, and what else did they say? The details could have been leaked by the King or someone from Buckingham Palace, or by Ms Markle or someone from her Montecito stronghold.

If Scobie knows who they are, who else knows? With their identities in the wild, but remaining unpublished, how long before they are outed publicly?

HAVE THE SUSSEXES FOUND FINANCIAL FREEDOM?

Scobie found fame with Finding Freedom, the “unauthorised” biography of Megxit and the Sussex’s goal of finding financial independence.

In his new book, Scobie writes that Prince Harry and Ms Markle regret rushing into lucrative contracts with Spotify and Netflix but were forced into the bad deals after being cut off from the palace purse.

After being dumped by Spotify, getting only a portion of its $20m contract, but scoring big wins with their $100m Netflix contract for Harry & Meghan, and the $20m advance for biography Spare, how much have the Duke and Duchess pocketed?

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ARCHWELL CONTENT MILL?

One of the few criticisms of the Sussex in Endgame is their lack of purpose for the Archewell Foundation and its business verticals, Archewell Productions and Archewell Audio.

“When I spoke to people in their orbit, they admit that it hadn’t quite gone to plan,” Scobie told People.

So, what is the plan? For being so well sourced with those “mutual friends” and palace insiders, Endgame doesn’t delve into the next chapter beyond the speculative possibility that Ms Markle could become a Hollywood producer or the next Martha Stewart.

In Endgame, he wrote she’s uncertain of what’s next and has changed her mind “about five times”.

A friend of Meghan’s told Scobie she is “busy working on creating something safe and timeless”.

“Something more accessible … something rooted in her love of details, curating, hosting, life’s simple pleasures and family”.

THE REMARKABLE REHABILITATION OF QUEEN CAMILLA

When Prince Harry released his autobiography Spare, his “wicked stepmother” Camilla bore the brunt of his vitriol. But the “Other Woman”, as Prince Harry called her, was another woman altogether in the pages of Endgame.

While Scobie trained his crosshairs on King Charles, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, he gave Camilla a remarkably light touch in comparison.

Camilla came under fire for … remaining silent under pressure as her powerful celebrity friends spoke out on her behalf. She was also singled out for taking anti-woke positions on gender and veganism, which reflect the majority of British sensibilities. Hardly a death blow.

HOW OLD IS OMID SCOBIE?

Scobie would be around 36, if going off the age he claimed to be during an interview with the Times in 2020. Then he was 32. In reality, “someone on the internet” discovered he was six years older, 38. Fast-forward a few years to 2023 and that would put him somewhere in his early 40s.

“I’m 42,” he says, telling the Standard he had a little insecurity about his age.

“I work in an industry where I’m surrounded by people who are, let’s say, conservative with telling their age, particularly in television,” he added.

“You learn from those mistakes. I can’t do much more than own it.”