Who is royal author Omid Scobie and is he Harry and Meghan's mouthpiece? An investigation.

This week, once again, saw the Royal Family under media bombardment with the release of the apocalyptically titled, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival. The latest bombshell of a book puts the Windsors on so much blast that you can almost imagine Buckingham Palace in embers and King Charles and Prince William running around their underpants with a hose trying to put out the fire as bath robed Queen Consort Camila and Catherine, Princess of Wales call the fire brigade.

The blurb lays the author Omid Scobie's allegiances out pretty quickly, stating the book is a penetrating investigation into an unpopular king, a power-hungry heir to the throne, a queen willing to go to lengths to preserve her image, and a prince forced to start a new life after being betrayed by his own family.

That last line is especially telling. 'Forced'. Blimey, if you were a cynic, you might even think the entire book sounds like reality filtered through a very Sussex lens. Bearing this in mind, it will come as no surprise when you find out that Scobie rose to prominence in 2020 with his last book, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family, which he co-authored with American journalist Carolyn Durand.

It tells the story of Harry and Meghan’s modern-day Instagram courted love story and those awful ice-cold, non-hugging, publicity hungry Royals who made their life hell and sounded like they could all do with a live-in therapist and a weighted comfort blanket. Apart from Meghan and Harry, of course, who had to escape the toxicity by buggering off to a $14 million mansion in Montecito, California for 'privacy', and we all know how that ended up.

Watch: Oprah With Meghan And Harry "Almost Unsurvivable". Post continues below.

The UK establishment battered the book and accused Scobie of being Megan's Mouthpiece or the Sussex Spokesperson at the time. For most journalists, being accused of this kind of bias and becoming a significant player in a story you've written would be a professional nightmare. Your reporter here absolutely *cringes* at the thought of it.

Yet Scobie didn't seem to mind the headlines. Embracing his notoriety, his Yahoo News biography, where he was haughtily monikered Royal Executive Editor until March this year, toasts him as "the most talked about royal correspondent of this generation". 

The baby-faced and oddly photogenic Scobie, 43, appears to relish the spotlight with extensive profiles in Vanity Fair and Tatler. The accompanying photo from the Tatler spread saw tabloid journalist Scobie presenting as a dark-eyed royal princeling as he laconically lounges back in a tux, smoking jacket and an impressive pair of sparkly trousers in an uber-flash apartment with his French bulldog perched on his lap.

So, who is Omid Scobie, and what is his connection to Meghan and Harry?

Scobie grew up in Oxford, England. While he went to a posh private school in primary school, he attended The Cherwell School, a state school, before attending the London College of Communication. Interestingly, most of the prominent UK journalists are known to attend Oxford University. Instead, Scobie earned his chops as a tabloid reporter on Heat magazine, a UK gossip weekly magazine. Think Love Island Meets Katie Price and a bunch of Wags at a Royal Wedding and you're reading Heat. It's hardly highbrow Tatler fair, where the journalists would have most likely gone to Prep with some minor royal.

Then Scobie moved up an echelon by becoming European bureau chief of lightweight American celebrity rag US Weekly, where part of his decade-long remit was reporting about the Royal weddings, births, deaths, handshaking, ribbon cutting with enough lightweight scandal to keep American readers titillated. Scobie then became royal editor-at-large at Harper's Bazaar and the royal contributor at ABC News, appearing on the television show Good Morning America and hosting the network's royal podcast, the HeirPod. So far, so un-establishment to think he'd have the necessary pedigree to be a true palace insider.

Yet his relationship with Meghan Markle goes back to 2015 when they met at Toronto Fashion Week, a full year before she met Harry. However, when Finding Freedom came out, both authors categorically denied having input from the Sussexs despite an overwhelming amount of juicy detail and enough boiling tea to seriously scold the Windsors.

Listen: Is Meghan Markle’s Podcast All A Lie? Post continues after podcast.

Scobie is adamant that he isn't 'friends' with Meghan and Harry but openly states they have mutual friends, i.e. sources. Meghan is a fan of Scobie's. He was one of the three journalists invited to cover the engagement on her last day as a working royal.

"I’m very tired of the ‘Meg’s pal’ stuff,” Scobie said yesterday in an Evening Standard profile. “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’.”

Which brings us to Endgame. With his allegiances firmly in the Sussex camp, it's hardly imaginable Scobie would be infiltrating royal circles or have the ear of the palace or its aids. Yet, he is quoted as saying in a Vanity Fair profile just released on publication of the tome. "I wanted to write something that could sit at the heart of that, completely without favour to anyone, that would just give all the facts and details on everything that's happened in recent years and allow the reader to think for themselves. With the royals, we're often dictated what the narrative is or what we're supposed to think about certain goings on within the royal family, and I really want the reader to just be able to make that conclusion on their own."

Endgame feels like reading a book about your family entirely from your brother's perspective after you've had a massive falling out. Undoubtedly, there would be some truth to it, but your version of events would differ wildly. The title is enough of a misnomer to make it a dud. While it may make temporary headlines and enhance Scobie’s profile, it will not bring down the Windsors or culturally modernise a powerful institution that spans centuries. But, over in Monecito, I reckon, Harry and Meghan would most likely have a signed copy on their bedside table.

Featured Image: @ScobieSnaps Instagram.