Rumors of an improvement in the relationship between Prince Harry and his birth family may be exaggerated.
Grievances are, in fact, alive and well, according to Prince Harry and Meghan’s unofficial but well-sourced biographer Omid Scobie. Scobie has said that Harry and Prince William’s relationship is “beyond repair” and William “doesn’t want to know” his “defector” brother, who he says has become “oh so California” after being “brainwashed by an army of therapists.”
Harry, meanwhile, who was “crushed” by his family shutting him out when his grandmother the queen died by not updating him about her condition, complains that William “refuses to even properly talk with him” but has accepted “things are unlikely to change.”
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Scobie, the author of Finding Freedom, the book which chronicled the couple’s departure from the royal family and was written with the secret co-operation of the Sussexes, is publishing a new book on the royals entitled Endgame.
In an interview with People magazine to promote the book, which is also running an excerpt of the tome, Scobie said: “I was talking to a source quite early on in the process, and they called Harry a ‘defector’ and said that was William’s view.”
Scobie added that “absolutely nothing has changed” since Harry published his memoir Spare last January. If anything, he said, “the hurt and anger” has “hardened” into “indifference.”
In an excerpt from the book, Scobie writes that William thinks Harry and Meghan “blindsided the family, even the queen” by going public with their dispute with the royals and says he has taken to mocking their “oh so California self-importance” to friends.
Scobie says William thinks Harry has been “brainwashed” by therapy and says he “no longer recognizes” him, according to sources.
None of this has been helped by the release of Harry’s memoir, Spare. William “feels betrayed and sad” and that he has “lost” Harry and “doesn’t want to know this version of him,” Scobie said.
Scobie, who is sympathetic to the Sussexes, told People: “In the eyes of some within the institution, Harry is a threat to the crown. His freedom to exert his own thinking outside of the confines of the institution has made him the enemy…there’s no going back.”
The book also sheds new light on the chaotic events surrounding the queen’s death and portrays Harry as being kept out of the loop by his family.
In an excerpt from the new book, which is slated for release at the end of the month, Scobie writes that on the day of the queen’s death, Harry and Meghan “had no idea” that the queen was dying until he received a phone call from Charles telling him to get to Balmoral.
Harry is said to have texted his brother at least twice asking if they could travel together but got no reply. Scobie cites a source close to the Sussexes as saying: “It was upsetting to witness. [Harry] was completely by himself on this.”
“William ignored him,” a family source is quoted as saying. “He clearly didn’t want to see his brother.”
Harry eventually paid $37,000 to charter a private plane for the trip, Scobie says, taking off at 5:35 p.m., more than two hours after the queen had died, and an hour after the prime minister had been told, although Harry had not been.
Scobie says Harry’s “team” were told before he was that the queen had died and they “literally had to beg” the royals to wait for Harry to land before making a statement.
Harry’s plane was delayed from landing by bad weather, however, and Buckingham Palace went ahead and made the announcement at 6:30 p.m, twenty minutes before Harry touched down.
A friend told Scobie: “Harry was crushed…They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all.”
