Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s departure from royal life and stories surrounding reported tensions with the Firm are just one part of a much wider issue, according to commentators.
Suggestions of less-than-perfect relations with those front and center in the royal fold have surfaced again following the release of Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame.
Daily Express US spoke to author and podcast host Kristen Meizner, who says of the Sussexes, the book and the institution: “I think they are one small piece of the puzzle, if you look at the book and the long list of valid concerns, they are very valid and very real concerns.”
She added: “This could be a moment of reckoning for the Royal Family and it’s not just something that is about Meghan and Harry or that Meghan and Harry should have to stand up against or defend.”
Meizner goes over the issues discussed in the book and what that means for the future of the monarchy.
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The Dutch version of Endgame triggered a row over allegations of racism within the Royal Family. The book has since been pulled from shelves, but not before being seen, resulting in public scrutiny.
Since then, it’s been “headline, after headline, after headline”, says Meinzer, with her adding, “I mean, Omid Scobie could not ask for better publicity for all of these articles protesting Omid Scobie.”
Meinzer goes over what’s addressed in the book, explaining: “Even Meghan and Harry don’t get off unscathed in this book, there are also criticism of Meghan and Harry in this book, there are criticisms, obviously, of Prince Andrew, there are criticisms of Charles, there are criticisms of the institution’s long history of colonizing.”
While Harry and Meghan may not be the ones to address Omid’s book, they are the most talked about, Meinzer noted. She said: “Harry and Meghan are still the most interesting thing to a lot of readers out there.
“The number of headlines that are Meghan/Harry/Scobie, Meghan/Harry/Scobie, it’s because they bring in clicks, they bring in ad dollars, and I would say, these palace insiders, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too, you can’t be mad that Omid is getting all of this attention, and Harry and Meghan are getting all of this attention, at the same time, that you’re leaking dirt, or, stirring up criticisms about Meghan and Harry, because you’re feeing into the attention that they’re getting, at the same time, that they’re getting attention.”
There are a lot of headlines suggesting Harry and Meghan need to address Endgame, but Meizner disagees, saying: “For all those people saying, “Harry and Meghan? Why won’t they just go away?” — Harry and Meghan have gone away, they’ve left the country, they’re in California, they aren’t saying anything right now.”
She added that those urging Harry and Meghan to speak up are “asking a lot of two people who are trying to have their private lives in California.”
She concludes: “Somebody wrote a book, and the name of the book is Endgame, I read it, and, I would say, it’s quite obvious, from the title of the book, and what Omid has said, that we are at a point right now, where the monarchy may not have the future, the bright glowing future, that everyone may have dreamed of in the palaces because, as he posits, in some ways, Queen Elizabeth II was more popular than the royal family themselves and the institution.”
