Endgame: Explosive royal book ruins Meghan Markle’s rebrand

A bombshell book about the royal family has hit Buckingham Palace – and scuppered the Duchess of Sussex’s plans for a US relaunch.

If you fancy some midweek irony, step right up.

Just as a new firestorm engulfs both Buckingham Palace and the House of Montecito, there was Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh and indefatigable trooper in Colombia visiting The Centre for Memory, Peace and Reconciliation.

Reconciliation? Maybe in Bogota but not Buckingham Palace right now.

This week has seen the release of the new book Endgame, by Duke and Duchess of Sussex sympathiser Omid Scobie, and which has dished up a fresh round of damaging claims about The Firm and all those who punch in everyday. (You didn’t know that the Princess of Wales has a time card? But of course.)

You might think that the biggest loser, the person who has suffered the largest setback since Scobie decided to plump for a second best-seller might be a certain King who has trouble using pens and making time for his firebrand younger son. You would be wrong.

Instead, spare a thought for Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex today as she watches a year’s worth of hard work be dashed by one single, solitary slip Scobie’s new roman-a-tone-deaf.

Let me explain.

For days now, the pipeline of revelations from Endgame (a book which bears literary resemblance to a microwaved sausage roll, limp and not exactly that exciting) have been issuing forth and shock horror they paint Crown Inc as a useless bunch of egos hooked on the narcotic of good press.

Also: Prince William is in a huge rush to get the Orb and Sceptre of State and is champing to get the regal bit between his teeth; Kate, the Princess of Wales is a limp and useless dolly who needs chivvying along to do anything more than gardening or baby dandling for the cameras; and King Charles got all weepy over clipping the wings of Prince Andrew, pal of convicted sex offenders! (Yes, plural!*)

Kate and William have once again been painted in an unflattering light. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP

Endgame author Omid Scobie. Picture: Supplied

All of which was bad enough for the Palace and then came … IT. THE moment that has loomed over the Their Majesties, all the HRHs and the Men in Grey since that a sun-dappled day in early 2021 when Meghan sat down with softball interlocutor Oprah Winfrey.

The unmasking of the family member who had raised “concerns and conversations about how dark” about the skin colour of the couple’s first baby.

At the time, the duchess demurred when it came to naming names, saying that “would be very damaging to them.”

Except now the cat is out of the bag thanks to a Dutch publisher, with the local language version naming the so-called ‘royal racist’.

Let us pause here to observe the lightning bolts and thunderclaps currently breaking over Monarchy HQ as the royal family absorbs the gravity of all of this.

While Endgame has been yanked from the shelves in the Netherlands, the biggest royal mystery since the princes in the Tower has now been solved.

The Daily Mail’s royal editor Rebecca English has reported that, generally speaking about the book, there is “shock in palace circles this week”.

“I think everyone is shocked at the malice and the deliberate cruelty of what he has written, not to mention the misogyny of much of what he says,” a source told English.

Spare a thought in all of this for Meghan whose nascent relaunch and rebranding efforts have thus thoroughly been torpedoed.

This year has seen the duchess change tack, dramatically. There has not been a single interview rehashing royal slights or referencing Nelson Mandela or presenting up the she and Harry as brave and embattled warriors for truth and soft-focus close-ups.

Instead the 42-year-old has spent this year on what looks like self-imposed mute, with Harry’s book (Spare) and Harry’s doco (Heart of Invictus) and Harry’s big charity event (the Invictus Games) being the sum total of Planet Archewell’s major output.

Harry and Meghan have been changing tack recently. Picture: Twitter

Endgame was released this week.

Think of this as the duchess creating a firebreak between the Sussex brand of yore, them trapped in a vinegary Groundhog Day of victimhood, and Meghan 2.0.

For months now, every single bit of reporting out of Montecito and London has said that the duchess is busy building some sort of exciting, entrepreneurial digital thingumabob that may or may not have something to do with wellness. (Whatever it is, you just know that the phrase ‘authentic self’ is going to get slung around with glee abandon.)

Scobie himself writes that the reason that Meghan didn’t attend the King’s coronation was because she didn’t want to “dive back into the soap opera of the court”.

Clearly, grey, drizzly Britain where “personal journey” means talking about how long it took you to navigate the Fulham Road traffic snarl is out and carbohydrate-free powwows over three-mineral water lunches are in.

Recent months have seen the duchess energetically throw her Philip Treacy hat in the Hollywood ring, hanging out with names such as Jeff Bezos, Kris Jenner, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos and Kim Kardashian; attending a charity fundraiser with Harry hosted by Kevin Costner and prominently featuring Winfrey; and doing the red carpet like a seasoned professional at Variety’s Power of Women event.

Meghan Markle at the Variety's Power of Women event earlier this month. Picture: Lisa O'Connor/AFP

The clear takeaway: The former Suits star wants to move on from the Sussexes’ reputation as TV and podcasting dilettantes whose successes can be fitted on the back of a beer mat (and are wholly dependent on banging on about that palace palaver) and to relaunch herself as an entertainment power player in her own right. (The feminist in me is cheering here, I’ll have you know.)

Except you know what they say about best laid plans.

Now, Endgame and its Dutch translation have well and truly blown that hope out of the water because like or not, Meghan has just been sucked back into the “soap opera”. She’s back to square one and back to being mired in those claims of cruelty, unconscious bias and conniving palace forces that she seemed so keen to leave behind.

So much for a clean slate and a fresh start for Meghan.

Endgame and the allegation that it was Charles who had “concerns” over his unborn grandson’s skin colour has just scuppered the duchess’ project to move on, brand-wise, from the events (and interviews) of recent years.

In Scobie and co-author Carolyn Durand’s previous book, Finding Freedom, he writes of a moment in March 2020 when the Sussexes undertook their final official engagement, saying “As Meghan gave me a final hug goodbye, she said, ‘It didn’t have to be this way.’”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

*There is, of course, Jeffrey Epstein plus fashion mogul Peter Nygard who earlier this month was found guilty in a Canadian court of four counts of sexual assault. Nygard hosted the Duke of York in 2000 along with his ex-wife Sarah Fergusion, Duchess of York and their daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

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.