In an excerpt from Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame, the bestselling author claims that Prince Harry’s team had to beg Buckingham Palace not to release news of Queen Elizabeth’s death before he had been told of the news
Prince Harry was ‘completely by himself’ and ‘remained in the dark’ about his beloved grandmother’s health before she died, an explosive new book has claimed.
Omid Scoobie, a royal biographer and friend of Harry and Meghan, has alleged that Prince William ignored his brother’s text and calls while the Duke of Sussex frantically planned his visit to Balmoral, rushing to be by the dying Queen’s side. In an excerpt from his book, Endgame, which is due to be released later this month, Omid says the brother’s painful feud has shifted to a troubling new phase, hardening “into something colder and more immovable, says Scobie: indifference.”
Prince Harry revealed in his own book Spare that he was forced to travel alone on 8 September 2022 to Balmoral, Aberdeenshire where the late Queen was staying as her health quickly deteriorated. Now fresh allegations about those fateful hours have surfaced. According to Omid’s book, reports at the time that King Charles had personally informed his son about the Queen’s death were innacurate. Instead, the Duke of Sussex’s “team literally had to beg for [the palace] to wait for his plane to land and they reluctantly agreed to hold the statement back for a little bit”.
The excerpt also reports that Harry was unable to get hold of his elder brother William when it came to making arrangements to travel together to Scotland, so instead was forced to take a separate flight from the rest of his family – during which he was unable to contact anyone.
It was during this time that, Scobie writes, a “tug-of-war between the Sussexes’ team and Buckingham Palace over whether to announce the news without Harry being informed” commenced, and the Prime Minister had already been told the news about the Queen’s death. “The Palace claimed Charles tried to call Harry (sources later told me there was never any proof of this), and that there was no more time left to delay,” it reads.
While the Queen died at 3.10pm, Harry was still unaware of the news when he had set off over two hours later, Scobie claims, and when bad weather conditions delayed his flight further, the news was officially announced.
“Patience at the Buckingham Palace press office wore thin — they could wait no longer and the announcement went live at 6:30 p.m. When Harry’s plane finally touched tarmac twenty minutes later, he received a text from Meghan urging him to call ASAP followed by a breaking news alert via the BBC News app with the announcement of the Queen’s death,” the book adds.
Endgame, which will be released in full later this month, has been described on Amazon as “a penetrating investigation into the current state of the British monarchy”. The book’s description has added: “An unpopular king, a power-hungry heir to the throne, a queen willing to go to dangerous lengths to preserve her image, and a prince forced to start a new life after being betrayed by his own family.”