Omid Scobie Endgame review: ‘The real royal villain is William’

It’s the eagerly awaited inside story of royal rivalries at the heart of the House of Windsor, and Anna Pasternak, the first to review it, discovers that the author with unique access to Harry and Meghan is unafraid of burning bridges to reveal his truth about the state of the monarchy

Crown duels: Omid Scobie (centre) packs ‘Endgame’ with gems about the bilious backbiting among the royal family (Calder Publicity/HarperCollins/Getty/Luke Fontana)

If you are in mourning as The Crown ends and wonder where to get your next fix of royal drama, Omid Scobie, the bestselling author of Finding Freedom, may have made your Christmas. In his new book, Endgame, which chronicles a dysfunctional monarchy limping along, Scobie is here to dish up some fresh new riveting claims, including that King Charles III and Prince William are not as united as we might have believed, the Princess of Wales visibly shivers at the mere mention of Meghan’s name and (thanks to elocution lesson) now sounds posher than her husband – a prince who is cast as an irascible and controlling heir. Scobie seals his reputation as a man on a mission: to expose a monarchy that, he believes, is rotting at its foundations.

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. 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. “For four years, some of the most damaging in Windsor history, I witnessed the full scope of the deceptions, malice, and defensive posturing of an unstable family business and an institution in decline,” he writes. “I saw just how far they would go to save their own skin… and I’ve witnessed the human damage done because of it.”

Omid Scobie claims that King Charles is getting increasingly irritated with his eldest son who is keen to get things done ‘the Cambridge way’ (Getty )