Omid Scobie claims Cabinet minister Simon Case promoted Prince William to “king in waiting” at Harry’s expense, causing irreparable damage to the brothers’ relationship.
A royal biographer has accused a senior UK official of undermining the authority of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle by leaking unfavorable stories about the couple to the press.
Scobie claims that when Mr Case was appointed William’s private secretary in 2018, he saw an opportunity to use a “PR stunt” to “widen the already visible cracks in the brothers’ relationship in favor of the heir to the throne.”
Join us from Los Angeles ahead of the release of his controversial new book. The finalScobie said: “The case was about renaming William. At the time, the newspapers described William as a shy and lazy man, and they were quite cruel to him.
“The way he behaved led to Harry and Meghan falling out with the institution.”
Mr. Case “repositioned William as the heir, the responsible adult in the room, and cast Harry, the replacement, as the stubborn, selfish brother with competing goals,” Scobie said.
The author claims Mr Case took advantage of the media reaction to Harry and Meghan using Sir Elton John’s private jet to fly to Nice by spreading the story that William and Kate had flown on a Flybe flight from Norwich for £73 to Aberdeen and flew to Balmoral.
“A deliberate publicity scheme: this was all Case’s doing,” said Scobie, who said he spoke to senior members of the royal family and close friends of family members about his book.
It later emerged that two empty planes had flown 500 miles on behalf of Flybe to transport the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children to Aberdeen on a Flybe plane.
Eastern Airways, which operated the flight, said it was an operational problem, but Scobie quoted a palace official as saying the Cambridges “looked like bigger hypocrites than the couple they were trying to portray.”
Sources close to William and Kate previously said they were unaware Flybe had changed the flight and did not ask for special treatment.
The Cabinet Office was asked to comment on Scobie’s allegations but did not respond.
Mr. Case’s actions “set off a chain of events that helped cause irreparable damage to the fraternal relationship,” Scobie wrote.
Whatever the human cost, Mr. Case’s campaign was a success. “William is firmly in the role of decisive king, while the palace and press portray Harry as a lost soul,” Scobie writes.
In his memoirs, Spare, Prince Harry named the three most senior palace advisers as the Bee, the Wasp and the Fly – presumably Sir Edward Young, the Queen’s private secretary, Clive Alderton, who worked for Prince Charles, and Mr Case, respectively.
The fly was extremely effective, but was “attracted to the innards of government, the media, and wormy innards,” Harry wrote.
Scobie argues that “radical measures” are needed to change the narrative around William, with Case attempting to “elevate” his director above Harry, who was previously seen as his brother’s equal in the public eye.
Mr Case, who is currently on leave from his job as the country’s top civil servant for health reasons, was reportedly warned that the book would accuse him of spreading negative stories about Harry.
He was previously criticized for his role in Partygate and for sending controversial WhatsApp messages to Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, during the pandemic. Mr Case has not yet appeared at the Covid inquiry to answer questions about his role during the pandemic and was excused from giving evidence this year on medical grounds.
He is still expected to give an oral statement and will later be questioned about the Partygate and WhatsApp messages he sent.
Scobie described the royal family as “tone-deaf, racist and financially reckless” and defended his new book, which accuses the palace of ousting the Duchess of Sussex out of jealousy over her popularity.
Prince William said the royal family is “not at all” racist, on the heels of the Sussexes’ interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which Meghan claimed a family member asked her what color Archie would be.
Scobie, whose book Finding Freedom detailed the Duchess of Sussex’s departure as a working member of the royal family, denies he was a “mouthpiece for Meghan.”
“Megan won’t give me the secret tapes. She doesn’t call me or have private meetings,” he shared about his relationship with the Sussexes.
“I’m not friends with them and never have been,” said the author, who first met Meghan in 2015 and said she called him in 2018 to ask about his mental health while he was being harassed online. “I built relationships with the teams around them.”
Scobie, 42, is apparently close enough to the Sussexes to write that Meghan and King Charles spoke in private letters about members of the royal family who they said questioned the color of baby Archie’s skin – an explosive allegation made during interview with Harry and Meghan conducted by Oprah. .
Two days after the March 2021 interview, Buckingham Palace released a statement on behalf of the late Queen Elizabeth II. It said the issues raised, “particularly those of race”, were “concerning” and added: “While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be discussed privately by the family.”
So who allegedly expressed “concerns” about Archie’s skin color? “For legal reasons I cannot name them, but I was surprised to learn that there were two of them. Details of the conversation can be found in the letters exchanged between Meghan and Charles.
“You may not agree, but Charles was very shocked to hear Meghan say this. There was a dialogue and it was decided to postpone this matter.”
The book says William and Harry have grown further apart as the Sussexes return to negotiations with King Charles, following allegations in the Duke of Sussex’s memoir Spare.
“Harry contacted William through a mutual friend to see if there was a chance to talk, but he was completely turned away,” Scobie said.
“This is the status of their relationship. While things have improved somewhat for Charles, the same has unfortunately not been the case for William.”
It is claimed that there is already a rivalry between King Charles and William over the pace of change within the institution and its environmental initiatives. “Even people I’ve spoken to who work at the palace refer to Charles as the bridge to his successor,” Scobie said.
“This shows that he is incapable of bringing about the radical changes needed. You can see that William is already working on his chance to do this.
After Finding Freedom, Scobie himself was attacked. “I never wanted to go down in history myself. There was a lot of bad racist stuff going on there,” said the author, who was born to a Scottish father and an Iranian mother. “The attention has led to changes in my life. You will have thicker skin.”
Kensington Palace declined to comment on Scobie’s statements.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.