Omid Scobie accuses Prince Edward and Sophie of ‘a royal screw up’ – and claims their remarks in the wake of Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview made them seem ‘casually bigoted’

• Omid Scoobie’s new book Endgame comes out at midnight tonight in the UK 
• READ MORE: Prince William does not think his father is a competent leader, Omid Scobie claims in bombshell new book, and was baffled that King ‘lay awake many nights worrying about Prince Andrew’ 

Omid Scoobie has called Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh’s ‘Oprah gaffe’ a royal ‘screw up’. 

During a June 2021 interview with the Telegraph, just days after Meghan and Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Edward and his wife the Countess of Wessex shared a laugh over Harry and Meghan’s controversial Oprah interview.

Speaking in their first major interview together since they married in 1999, the royal couple jokingly asked ‘Oprah who?’ and ‘what interview?’ when quizzed on whether they watched Harry and Meghan’s bombshell sit down with the US chat show host. ‘You know, if you’re not into chat shows, there’s no reason why you should know who she is. Certainly not this this country, anyway,’ Sophie said. 

But Omid has claimed that ‘the comments about the world’s most successful black woman and one of the biggest faces in entertainment made them seem stuffy or tine-eared at best, and casually bigoted at worst.’ 

‘What may seem like a trivial episode by itself, Sophie’s Oprah gaffe is yet another page to add to the history of recent screw ups.’

Omid Scoobie has called Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh’s ‘Oprah gaffe’ a royal screw up

Omid Scobie today claimed letters between King Charles III and Meghan Markle reveal the names of two people who allegedly commented on Archie’s skin colour.

The royal author, whose new book Endgame comes out at midnight tonight, said he could not reveal the identities of the two people for fear of legal reprisals in the UK.

But he said letters were exchanged between Charles and Meghan following the allegation in the Sussexes’ bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.

In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America broadcast today, Mr Scobie was asked whether he knew who made the comments about Archie’s skin colour.

Royal author Omid Scobie gave an interview broadcast on ABC’s Good Morning America today

He said: ‘I do know who made the comments about Archie’s skin colour. The names were mentioned in letters between Meghan and Charles that were exchanged some time after the Oprah interview.

Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame about the Royal Family is set to be released tomorrow

‘We know from sources that Charles was horrified that that’s how Meghan felt. Those conversations were, and that he wanted to, sort of as a representative for the family, have that conversation with her.

‘And it is why I personally think they have been able to move forward with some kind of line of communication afterwards. Though they may not see eye to eye on it.’

Mr Scobie’s claims threaten to reignite the ‘royal racist’ row that came about after Harry and Meghan’s interview.

Meghan had alleged in the TV special that an unnamed member of the Royal Family spoke about ‘how dark his (Archie’s) skin might be when he’s born’.

But it is now being claimed that a second member of the extended Royal Household – who may not be a member of the Royal Family itself – also made similar comments.

King Charles III attends St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk, yesterday

The two people are not named in Endgame, which is subtitled ‘Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival’.

READ MORE Omid Scobie’s sneak peak ‘truth bombs’: Every claim the ‘Sussex Cheerleader-In-Chief’ makes against the Royal Family in extracts of new Harry and Meghan book Endgame ahead of release tomorrow

The book makes a series of claims about the royals and looks at its future following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September last year.

And Mr Scobie added to ABC: ‘I think before people assume that I’m calling this the end of the Royal Family, I’m simply declaring that we’ve reached a sort of pinnacle moment where the royal family as we know it, is at stake.’

He also makes claims about Prince William leaking stories about Harry.

Mr Scobie said: ‘He’s sharing private information about his brother that ended up on the front page of a newspaper not long later. These are things that have cause irreparable damage in the relations between each other.’

Describing William as a ‘company man’, he said: ‘We have seen the emergence of a man who is much harder, who seems to have embraced and embodied the royal institution’.

The ABC report also said Harry is willing to end the rift between William, had tried to reach out to his brother and that relations with his father Charles ‘may be on the mend’.

Mr Scobie said: ‘There is a steady open line of communication between the two, where they are able to talk with each other. Where Harry, I would say, clearly understands that his father probably isn’t the most emotional or open person’.

The report on ABC said its interview with Mr Scobie also saw him claim he felt he was caught up in a family drama – and that Meghan contacted him to check he was OK.

ABC claimed Mr Scobie also says that he is not that close with Harry and Meghan and he ‘never chose Team Sussex’.

William, Harry, Meghan and Charles speak together at Westminster Abbey in March 2019

Meghan, Harry, William and Kate on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in July 2018

The interview will be broadcast tomorrow night on Nightline.

Mr Scobie tweeted a link to the interview on X today, adding: ‘More of this @GMA interview will be aired Tuesday on @ABC @Nightline and I’ll be live in the studios for @ABCGMA3 and @ABCNewsLive tomorrow, the global release day of #ENDGAME.’

Mr Scobie’s book is said to make a series of claims involving the Sussexes – including that William was involved in ‘things that have gone out about his own brother’, that the elder brother ignored texts from Harry when the family were making their way to Balmoral before the late Queen died last year.

Among the claims made in the book are that there is a rift between the King and the William, that Queen Camilla has ‘quietly thanked’ Piers Morgan for ‘defending the Firm’ and that a timid Princess of Wales has to be encouraged to perform engagements.

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