Harry and Meghan’s biographer Omid Scobie: ‘I don’t know if they even like me’

Journalist and author of Finding Freedom gives new details in magazine interview

Royal rota journalist Omid Scobie has revealed new details about his relationship with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in an interview, following the release of the paperback version of Finding Freedom.

Speaking to Tatler, Scobie, 38, opened up about his career and experience reporting on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as the impact of the book on his relationship with them.

The new edition of Finding Freedom, authored by Scobie and Carolyn Durand, included a new epilogue that reflected how the couple spent the past year.

Scobie, who is British-Persian, told the magazine that he was one of three journalists invited to Meghan’s last engagement as a working royal, and that he shared a “big farewell hug” with the duchess.

According to the journalist, Meghan told him: “It didn’t have to be this way” as they hugged, before she flew out of England to live in California with Harry and their son Archie in January 2020.

Scobie thought his work for US publications US Weekly and Harper’s Bazaar led to the Sussexes trusting him enough to share their last moments as senior members of the royal family.

“I think she wanted to share that last moment because it is a moment in history,” he told the magazine. “But also to do it in an environment she felt safe in.”

Scobie said the narrative around Meghan “twisted” drastically after Archie’s birth, when it appeared as though “nothing Meghan could do was ever right” and it was around this time that the Sussexes “realised there was no moving on from there”.

Asked how he was able to secure direct quotes from Meghan in the book, despite the couple’s legal team insisting there was no collaboration with them, Scobie said it was the duchess’ friends who reached out to “share some insight into how she was feeling”.

“People who said no at the beginning, as they saw things getting worse, suddenly replied to an email we’d sent six or seven months to a year earlier - people who’d just grown increasingly frustrated with the stuff they’d seen and how far [different] that is to what really goes on,” he said.

However, Scobie is unsure of his relationship with the Sussexes now, following the publication of the book. He said he doesn’t “even know if the Sussexes like me, to be honest”, adding that “press is press”.

He also said the couple’s relationship with the tabloids is “completely dead” and he did not think it would ever work.

On the rift in Harry’s relationship with Prince William, Scobie said things had not “progressed”, contrary to reports saying the brothers were ready to put their feud behind them after they unveiled a statue of their mother, Diana, in July.