'Endgame' Isn't an Attack on The Monarchy

But a Royal Reckoning Needs to Happen

(Thanks to HarperCollins for an advance copy.)

It is hardly surprising that leaked excerpts from poorly translated copies of Omid Scobie’s much-anticipated book, Endgame, were splashed on the front pages of several British tabloids days ahead of its November 28th release. The headlines themselves could have been written weeks ago. They fit a preordained narrative the British media has laid out for Scobie, similar to the narratives he accuses the media of creating when it comes to the story of the Royal Family and its cast of characters.

Then there’s the confusion—deliberately or not—over what Endgame is about. If you’re expecting Endgame to be a puff piece extolling the virtues of the Sussexes, you will be sorely disappointed. If you’re expecting a brutal character assassination of senior royals and a takedown of the monarchy, you will also be disappointed. Scobie clearly lays out the book’s thesis in the prologue, writing:

“I fear that by continuing to ignore the ongoing constitutional corruption in the Palace’s inner sanctum and enabling a cabal of courtiers and the British media to call the shots—as well as quietly supporting those who have brought shame and humiliation to the Crown—the royal institution is risking untold damage to the Queen’s legacy.”

Like the final stages of a chess game after most of the pieces have been removed from the board, the British Monarchy are in their very own endgame. They can avoid this path, Scobie writes, but it involves real change.

The book is structured by weaving the stories of the remaining “chess pieces” on the board—with research and sourcing to back it up—around the other elements plaguing the British Royal Family—courtiers, media entanglements, etc. Scobie justifies his decision to include passages about non-working royals Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Prince Andrew because of the impact they’ve had on the current state of the monarchy. Harry and Meghan, for the issues around misogynoir, image manipulation, and institutional cruelty to name a few that, “remain largely ignored and unexamined by the Palace,” and Prince Andrew for his despicable entanglements and track record that continue to destabilize and reflect poorly on the monarchy.

Endgame is full of captivating, behind-the-scenes info and juicy tidbits (royal reporters and palace aides have a WhatsApp, Earthshot’s repurposed carpet from the previous year’s ceremony was flown in to Boston for environmentally conscious optics), but the real “bombshell” of Endgame is that, it’s not a bombshell at all. We accept the need to adapt and change based on our environment in our own evolution as a species, but apply it to the British Royal Family and you’re accused of being anti-monarchy or brushed aside as a mouthpiece for Harry & Meghan. What’s truly shocking about Endgame is that someone finally said it, and a royal rota reporter at that.

Endgame also stands out because it doesn’t rely on the caricatures that the media and the Firm have crafted about Charles, Camilla, William, Kate, Harry, or Meghan. It treats them like humans, warts and all. The book isn’t without its bold statements and snark (that comes with receipts, my favorite kind of snark). But, when he writes about Kate, then-Duchess of Cambridge’s nerves before taping a program, it’s not with malice. He gets into Prince William’s temper (and correctly side-eyes Camilla Tominey’s truly appalling take in The Telegraph that William pushing his brother made him edgy), but he also gives the Prince full credit for acting quickly and facilitating the stripping of titles from Prince Andrew, something the media incorrectly presented as a father-son achievement.

Some readers may struggle with the lack of “a side” or clearly defined good and bad characters (besides Prince Andrew, I think we can all agree on that one). But journalism isn’t about effusively heaping praise on public figures nor should there be an expectation of an overcorrection when someone has been unfairly maligned by the press. The media has incorrectly labeled Scobie as the Sussex mouthpiece to discredit his reporting (what does that make the rest of the British tabloids then?) and it seems that even some well-meaning Sussex fans have internalized that narrative and expect him to cover the couple as such. What thrust Scobie into the spotlight was his unwillingness to toe the line when it came to the story that other writers had decided on when it came to Harry and Meghan, because it didn’t match what he was seeing and hearing in his own reporting. Some will bristle at his analysis of the Sussexes post-royal moves - and recollection that, gasp, not everyone who worked for the Duchess of Sussex loved her (who loves everyone they work with anyway?), but no one is put on a pedestal. I didn’t feel like I was being sold to feel a certain way about any one royal, but I felt I had a new insight into them. A better understanding.

---

I found myself wondering throughout the book if this is also endgame for Scobie when it comes to full-time royal reporting. Endgame feels like his crown jewel in which he expends every ounce of his decade plus career as a royal reporter in order to write the book, but also to remind people that he didn’t just come on the scene when Meghan entered the picture. Endgame feels like an opportunity for Scobie to reclaim his narrative, especially after the media treatment Finding Freedom—his first book co-written with Carolyn Durand—received. (He does go into Markle’s Mail on Sunday lawsuit and the accusations that the Duchess of Sussex ‘provided information for the book', which he says is unequivocally false.)

What also gives it the feeling of an ending is that he writes in the prologue that he’s ok with burning some bridges. I imagine these “bridges” would include: Christian Jones, Jason Knauf, and Rebecca English, the latter whom he quotes a source as recalling that Queen Camilla always wanted a “little pet” in the media, which appears to be English. Given her lack of a critical word about Camilla since 2004, it’s hard to argue with that.

The media chapter is far and away my favorite because of the level of insight we get—and some of the biggest revelations live there too. (In my next post I will get into what Christian Jones tries to get Omid to do and it is truly shocking.) Scobie brings the reader right into the Lord of the Flies esq. world of the often misunderstood royal rota (I think this would make Rebecca English, Jack) and a firsthand account of how the media and the Palace run the show behind the scenes. Scobie provides a bit of media literacy by explaining how quote attributions work and how the monarchy definitely doesn’t heed the motto, “never complain, never explain.”

---

One royal reporter isn’t going to single-handedly take down the monarchy just like the British tabloids can’t single-handedly save the monarchy (and with a drought of jubilees, royal weddings or babies in the future, it will be a much harder sell).

We’re at a critical juncture that historians will look back on as either the turning point or the beginning of the end for the monarchy. What the monarchy decides to do with its final moves will determine its future. Only time will tell.

-Meredith

(Endgame is out now wherever you get your books.)