Finding Freedom: New book reveals details about Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s royal life
Meghan and Harry managed to sneak away from royal duties for a top secret night at the home of an Aussie billionaire in Sydney, a new book reveals.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a secret night out in Sydney with friends Jessica and Ben Mulroney at the home of a real estate billionaire, a new book about the royal couple claims.
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Royal Family by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand was released on Tuesday in the UK and contains a host of revelations about the couple and their exit from royal life.
It reveals how in October 15, 2018, shortly after their May wedding the couple briefed the royal press pack they were expecting a baby.
The news came on the eve of their trip to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga and was announced before Meghan hit the 12-week mark because she was “already showing and hiding it would not have been possible”, a royal aide said.
“The rumours would have dominated the coverage and taken away from the entire purpose of the tour. Meghan didn’t want that.”
While the news was met with an almost universally positive response, Prince Harry’s closest cousin, Princess Eugenie was not happy the couple had shared it at her wedding a few days earlier.
“It did not go down well, particularly with Eugenie, who a source said told friends she felt the couple should have waited to share the news,” the book states.
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Days later, the couple landed in Sydney with a 10-person entourage including Meghan’s personal hairstylist George Northwood. They managed to have a secret night out with Meghan’s reportedly former best friend Jessica Mulroney and her husband Ben, who was covering the Invictus Games for Canadian television, the authors said.
“A real estate billionaire loaned them his home for an intimate and completely secret evening with a five-course meal prepared by a private chef,” the authors said.
The couple were said to have arrived to “Beatlemania-size” crowds including “young people who had never had an interest in the British monarchy had suddenly become engaged with the royals.”
Despite Fiji and Tonga being risk zones for the zika virus which is a danger for pregnant women, Meghan was reportedly determined to press ahead and was “drenched” DEET every time she stepped out.
The couple were also said to have spent three days with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and have kept in touch with her ever since.
The hotly anticipated biography was released in the UK on Tuesday and provided further revelations about the couple’s exit from royal life including the brutal final farewell at a Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey and the story behind a tense South Africa tour that saw the couple take on the tabloid press.
HERE ARE THE BEST BITS FROM INSIDE:
BRUTAL FINAL FAREWELL
The book describes how the machinations of “Megxit” played out and the couple as emotionally exhaused and isolated, who sometimes “ran hot” and acted impulsively before changing their mind days later.
It reveals a relationship between Meghan and Kate that never managed to move past politeness despite aides suggesting the women visit Wimbledon together and charity polo days with their families.
It notes how the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, which was part of a final flurry of engagements in March this year, underscored the decision to leave for Meghan and Harry after the bruised couple realised their names had been scrubbed from the order of service after 2000 copies had been printed.
As a concession, the Cambridges agreed to walk in with them but the frosty atmosphere was evident as Kate and William barely uttered a word to the couple, instead turning to talk to Sophie and Edward.
Meghan was said to have taken the first flight back to Canada “emotionally bruised and exhausted” while Harry stayed three more days in the UK but did not see William and Kate again. A friend of Harry’s is quoted as saying “to repair that relationship will take time.”
“They see things differently. They feel that the experience that they’ve gone through over the last couple of years, they come at it from different points of view,” the friend says in the book.
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WHATSAPP MESSAGE THAT SPARKED MEDIA WAR
The inside story of the tense days on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal tour of South Africa has also been laid bare.
After nine days of positive coverage, the authors revealed how a bombshell message on the “Sussex Royal South Africa” WhatsApp group that included 25 royal correspondents contained the link to Prince Harry’s blistering statement attacking the tabloid press.
The message, posted at 7:13pm on October 2, was vague, simply saying “Evening all, for your information,” with a link to a press statement from Prince Harry.
Published on the newly created Sussex Royal website, Prince Harry wrote that he feared his wife and young son were becoming victim to the same powerful forces that he believes killed his mother, Princess Diana and he feared history repeating itself.
It also announced the couple would be suing publishers of the Mail on Sunday after it published a letter from Meghan Markle written to her father Thomas.
“The battle was on”, the authors wrote, describing the curious timing of the announcement, which came after days of glowing coverage of the tour, as designed to take advantage of changes due in London’s High Court that could see judges “tended to side with publishers”
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The book claims the couple were “incredibly nervous” about the action but felt they needed to “go in strong.” It describes them as “emotionally exhausted and isolated” with baby Archie the “sole source of joy” in their lives in the lead up to the bombshell documentary that saw them admit their unhappiness publicly for the first time.
The authors wrote that Prince Harry was “highly emotional and fiercely protective of his wife and son.”
He was also “drained by the unique circumstances of his family which a source said “doesn’t have the opportunity to operate as an actual family.”
“Every conversation, ever issue, every personal disagreement, whatever it may be involves staff.”
“It creates a really weird environment that actually doesn’t allow people to sort things out themselves.”
During the bombshell ITV documentary which aired after the tour, Meghan told Tom Bradby she had been struggling with royal life and Prince Harry admitted to a public rift with Prince William for the first time.
“No one could deny the fact that the couple was emotionally exhausted, whether they had brought it on themselves or were victims of a merciless machine,” the authors wrote.
The fallout led to reports Prince William was worried about his brother being in a “fragile place” prompting more fury from Prince Harry.
“He thought it was low to be sharing opinion like that so publicly,” the book claims. “Harry felt that William and the people around him were too concerned with press coverage.”
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‘CALIFORNIAN WHO THINKS SHE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD’
The book said Meghan was described as a “Californian who thinks she can change the world” by a palace courtier upon entry to the royal family, compared to Kate who was more timid.
The authors quote an aide as saying she arrived into the royal fold as a “fully formed adult, having lived already a third of her life.”
“She is a Californian who believes she can change the world. She creates her own brand, she creates her own website, she does deals, she talks about life and how we should live,” the source said.
“That’s the way in America. In Britain, people look at that and go, who do you think you are?”
It describes how Meghan underwent an intense two-day security training course with the British SAS that included preparation for being kidnapped, taken in a hostage situation or experiencing a terror attack.
Unlike Kate, the training took place before her marriage to Prince Harry because the couple had received an “unusually high number of threats,” the authors wrote.
She was also supposed to have etiquette training that ended up not being on offer.
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WHAT MEGHAN THOUGHT OF THAT BLACKAMOOR BROOCH
The authors describe the thought Meghan would put into her royal outfit choices and how she tried to “hero” a local piece on each occasion.
Of a pre-Christmas lunch where Princess Michael of Kent caused controversy by wearing a Blackamoor brooch which are considered racist, the authors said Meghan couldn’t help but question the choice of clothing.
“In the back of Meghan’s mind, she wondered if there wasn’t a message being sent in the pin of the torso of an African man wearing a gold turban and ornate clothing,” the authors wrote. Princess Michael later apologised to the couple.
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‘DEEPLY UNHEALTHY AND UNWELCOME’
The book describes the days leading up to the hastily published statement from the couple announcing they wanted to step back from public duties.
The authors wrote how the couple took their own communications team and staff by surprise with the arrangements detailed on their new website about the hybrid royal roles they wanted to adopt.
The move was said to have put the Queen in a “difficult position” and infuriated her private secretary Edward Young.
“The private offices don’t like that type of behaviour.” a source said. “It is deeply unhealthy and unwelcome.”
The Queen and Prince Philip were said to be “devastated” by the news with the blindsiding of the Queen described as “deeply unsettling.”
Prince Harry and Meghan were described as “impatient and impulsive” and “running hot.”
“The reactions in individual moments are definitely not the same, a month, a few weeks down the line,” a source said.
WHO ARE OMID SCOBIE AND CAROLYN DURAND?
The authors of Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, are part of a group of royal correspondents that frequently travel with the family and have close access to their work.
Omid Scobie is a London-based writer, royal editor for Harper’s Bazaar and a contributor to ABC News and Good Morning America.
Carolyn Durand has spent nearly two decades working in London covering Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Clarence House and other major international events. During that time, she produced multiple interviews with members of the royal family including Prince Harry.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have emphatically denied collaborating or giving interviews for the book, however the portrayal is widely seen as sympathetic to the couple and an attempt to rewrite the narrative of their departure from the royal family.
The book has also drawn comparisons with the explosive 1992 biography Diana: Her True Story, by Andrew Morton, which was written with the co-operation of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Royal Family by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, published by HarperCollins is out August 12 RRP $34.99. Available where all good books are sold.
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