Why won’t Prince Harry speak out to defend his dad?

As the royal ‘exposer-in-chief’ Omid Scobie is lambasted for betraying so many private conversations with his gossipy book ‘Endgame’, Harry’s biographer Angela Levin asks why has there been no word from the Sussexes

Harry and Meghan have kept their silence so far around Scobie’s bombshell claims (PA)

The test to determine whether Harry and Meghan were involved with Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame, is to see if Prince Harry sues him. Harry dislikes anyone breaching his privacy and is a regular at the high courts. Similarly, Meghan isn’t known to be slow in calling out intrusion when private correspondence is thrust into the public domain. It is something she has done before, and after the contents of private letters exchanged between King Charles have been exposed, why not now?

If we hear nothing from them, we can only assume that they approve of Scobie’s spiteful book, where race and the royals form a whole chapter. Charles is said to have addressed the incident where “concerns and conversations” were apparently raised by not one but two members of the royal family about what the shade of Archie’s skin colour might be. The book refers to private letters exchanged between the King and his daughter-in-law, whereby Charles wished to reassure the couple that he felt there was no “ill will” or “casual prejudice” present when the two people had made their comments.

In the book, Scobie makes the grand claim that the identities were revealed in those private letters, but that laws in the United Kingdom “prevented him from reporting who they were”. By some design, they ended up in the Dutch translation – a mystery that is still yet to be solved – which has now been hastily pulled from the shelves. Piers Morgan, however, has seen to it that the names are now public knowledge.

But what most intrigues me is how Scobie knows what was contained in those private pages. King Charles certainly wouldn’t have shown anyone the letters. Scobie says Harry and Meghan have had nothing to do with the book and that they are not currently in contact. He does admit that they have friends in common and says with certainty that he knows what the letters say. So, the fact that privacy has been compromised is not in question. Curious, then, that the two people most keen on it have kept their counsel.

Omid Scobie during an interview on ITV’s ‘This Morning’ on Thursday (ITV)

If Meghan has helped here, either directly or otherwise, it won’t be the first time. In 2021, several claims were made in a US magazine about the relationship she had with her father, Thomas Markle. Thomas, who wanted to have his say, then showed a letter from Meghan to The Mail on Sunday, a betrayal of her privacy, she said. She was later forced to admit that she had “forgotten” that she had passed on material for Scobie’s first book, Finding Freedom, and apologised in the High Court for doing so. However, she did win her claim in the High Court that her privacy was breached over the publication of her letter.

In theory, there may have been enough invasions of privacy to sue Scobie too, but the author has probably gambled that it is very unlikely. I wonder why? He also understands that the working royals are unlikely to make this a matter for the courts either. They will, no doubt, present a dignified calm in the middle of this “racist royal” storm.

‘Endgame’ by Omid Scobie was published on Tuesday (Calder Publicity/HarperCollins)

We have also learnt that Harry phoned to wish his father a happy 75th birthday and mentioned that he would be keen to be with the family for Christmas. Apparently, Meghan had a chat with him too, and Scobie writes that the couple regularly send him photos of his grandchildren. If we are to believe the claims that Harry is ready to call a truce with his father, then the fastest way to make that happen would surely be to publicly distance himself from this malicious book. Raking up old ground and bringing up conversations, which have been personally addressed in a “respectful back and forth”, will bring nothing but more sorrow. King Charles has, by all accounts, made moves to repair the rift between himself and his youngest son; if Meghan and Harry distanced themselves from Scobie’s book then it would surely help the process.

Their silence speaks volumes and is even more extraordinary when you consider what is at stake. While the intention of Endgame may have been to call “time” on the monarchy, it is likely to be simply another chapter to be weathered by an institution that has seen many others. No, what is really at stake is what truly matters, a family trying to get past trauma and to a place of healing. If nothing else, this book stops that in its tracks. If Harry and Meghan can’t recognise that and bring themselves to publicly acknowledge the damage Scobie has done, then are the rest of us left to assume that maybe they just don’t care.

Angela Levin is a journalist and author of 2018’s ‘Harry: Conversations with the Prince’