Bombshell book reveals 40 minutes that changed royal history

A new book about the monarchy has revealed how Prince William had to be strongarmed into an iconic moment after the death of the late Queen.

Let us consider the select approved adjectives used to describe the royal family: Dignified. Venerable. Dutiful. Horse-mad. Kilt-loving. German.

Noticeably absent from that list: Fast. Speedy. Quick to react and nimble with the eyeliner when required.

And yet that, according to biographer Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame, is exactly what was required to pull off one of the greatest surprises in modern royal history, when both William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, emerged and played nice after the death last year of Her late Majesty.

When the sombrely dressed foursome emerged from an Audi that day to make their way to greet the crowds that had gathered along the Windsor Castle Long Walk, days after the death of Her late Majesty, they managed to surprise the pants off royal watchers.

The royal foursome make the long walk in September last year. Picture: AFP

You know exactly the shots: the images of the profoundly awkward foursome seared on our collective consciousness, a moment that perfectly encapsulated the greatest royal rift since the Lancastrians and the Yorkists duked it out for more than 30 years. (Mandatory War of the Roses reference, check.)

It is required of all royal writers at this point to describe this mise-en-scene using the phrase, ‘the tension was palpable’.

We might all know the photos - but have we heard the whole story?

Now, Endgame, (such a ‘Liam Neeson movie title’, that) has revealed what it actually took to pull off this outing. Specifically: regal intervention, nerves of steel and the precision deployment of Sephora’s best and brightest products in record time.

Things all started on September 10 when the newly acceded King Charles spoke to his oldest son to bang the drum a bit about a show of family unity.

A show of unity - albeit quite an awkward one. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty

A palace source told Scobie: “Essentially, he told William to swallow his pride and invite his brother and sister-in-law to join them when they greeted mourners and wellwishers in Windsor that day. William wasn’t keen. This was his moment with the public, but the King put pressure on [him].”

It was at this point that the newly ensconced Prince of Wales reportedly succumbed to doing his duty, refraining from calling Harry out for a bit of a nerf guns-at-dawn-type scenario in the Adelaide Cottage back garden.

Rather, the prince messaged Harry to invite he and Meghan, a missive I think we can assume was low on smiley emojis and high on pass-agg-ery. According to Endgame, the text “[suggested] it would be “good” if [the Sussexes] came along, too.”

It’s worth noting here that Endgame’s characterisation of William’s role casts things in a much less flattering light than at the time, when the palace line portrayed the prince as the magnanimous bigger man, maturely extending the hand of friendship to his younger brother.

Endgame is an explosive new book about Harry and Meghan. Picture: Harper Collins

Author Omid Scobie.

As a palace spokesperson said at the time: “The Prince of Wales thought it was an important show of unity for the Queen at an incredibly difficult time for the family.”

However, this all happened only “around 40 minutes” before William and Kate were set to greet the keening masses, or at least the supermarket-flower-clutching masses, who had come to pay their respects to a woman who had, for a solid 70 years, put duty ahead of her dearest wish to just drink sherry in front of the transistor and listen to the 4pm at Newmarket.

Scobie writes: “The couple wanted to do what was right, but time was short. Meghan, in sneakers with her hair pulled up, had only just come back from a walk.”

(In Endgame’s telling, Harry and Meghan are generally framed as paragons, two people guilty of caring just so darn tooting much and who are perpetually eager to help the royal family see the error of their multitudinous ways.)

Enter Ashley Hansen, their head of communications who “gave the couple a pep talk,” though it is unclear if this was delivered via Zoom from their Montecito nerve centre or if Hansen had travelled with them. The duke and duchess had been back in the UK for charity engagements when the late Queen went to her reward, which I think in her case would be a celestial, never-ending version of the Windsor Horse Show.

“It doesn’t matter how little time you have, just get out there and do it,” Hansen said, per Endgame.

And thus Harry and Meghan did, with the duchess pulling off what would have to be a Guinness Book-worthy hair and make-up power sprint.

The foursome view floral tributes left at Windsor Castle. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images

Missing from Scobie’s account are the “extended negotiations” that took place behind-the-scenes, and as reported by the Times, between the Wales and Sussexes’ camps to sort out the details of the combined outing and which delayed things by 45 minutes, perhaps because it’s less than paragon-y to sweat the small stuff.

The two couples rendezvoused in the Windsor Castle courtyard and then drove off together to make history and to manage not to throttle one another for a matter of tens of minutes. Scobie writes that “the 150-second car ride to the Long Walk felt like two hours as they muddled through light small talk,” a sentence that begs the question, how the dickens does he know?

If there were only four people strapped into that car and only four people forced, I’m assuming, to get all the conversational mileage they could out of the weather, who revealed this arduous journey of high emotions to the not-exactly bipartisan biographer?

He goes on: “Then a feeling of discomfort and reluctancy set in as Harry and Meghan caught a glimpse of the photographers and video cameras ready to capture their arrival as a group of four. They knew there would be members of the public gathered, but this was the first time they knew of an official media presence. Kensington Palace, they later found out, had tipped off a select group of people.”

All eyes were on the two royal couples given their recent fractious history. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty

We have to pause here to consider this moment: Why would the Sussexes have been taken aback in the slightest to find out that “a select group” of the media had been informed about an outing involving the heir to the throne during a historically momentous event?

The inference we are seemingly meant to draw from this is that here again was the dastardly Palace cavorting far too familiarly with the people whose job is to cover their every move. Except to me, that’s a bit like going to an aquarium and being surprised that there are sharks. They are part of the ecosystem.

But. Here we are. A good 15 months on from that Long Walk moment and there is no sign that anything will ever change when it comes to William and Harry’s decimated relationship, the Chernobyl of fraternal bonds.

Just to get a bit morbid for a grey Tuesday, consider this. It was a painful moment that brought the two brothers together and the only thing that will see them, ever again possibly, standing side-by-side will likely be the King’s own death. Now there’s something for His Majesty to think about over his morning coddled egg.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.