The author of an upcoming book which sets out to explore the monarchy’s “fight for survival” says he did not interview the Duchess of Sussex for it.
However, Omid Scobie, says he does share “mutual friends” with the duchess – something he says “helps with getting information and breaking details” about the Royal Family.
His latest book, Endgame, is due to be released on Tuesday.
It promises to look “inside” the Royal Family and the monarchy’s “fight for survival”.
The 42-year-old previously co-authored the book Finding Freedom – a biography of the Sussexes and their breakaway from the Royal Family.
Representatives for the couple denied contributing to the biography.
However, during Meghan’s privacy case against Associated Newspapers – publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday – her legal team admitted she had permitted a close friend to communicate with Mr Scobie and his co-author.
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They said this had been done so that the “true position… could be communicated to the authors to prevent any further misrepresentation”.
Mr Scobie’s work has earned him disparaging nicknames such as “Meghan’s mouthpiece” among the more pro-monarchy sections of the press, which have been critical of his reporting of the Sussexes.
The author has often returned fire with his own critiques on the tabloid press, though he says he has “struggled” with “anti-Meghan trolls” on social media.
But he insists he is “not friends” with the duchess, despite them having mutual acquaintances.
“I have mutual friends with (Meghan), and that definitely helps with getting information and breaking details,” he told The Times newspaper, in a piece about his upcoming book.
Endgame is set to make a series of claims about the royals and will assert that the future of the Royal Family is “in a crisis”.
“That crisis being a lack of interest from young people, an apathy, a growing republican movement, questions over whether the family still uphold the morals and values of the crown that the Queen did such a great job of,” Mr Scobie told the paper.
Meanwhile, the Sussexes, who stepped back from frontline royal duties in February 2021 and later started a new life in California, he suggests, are in “a good place”.
Among the claims made in Endgame are a rift between the King and the Prince of Wales, that the Queen “quietly thanked” Piers Morgan for “defending the Firm” and that a timid Princess of Wales needs encouragement to perform engagements.
According to The Times, the book also makes a series of claims involving the Sussexes – including that the Prince of Wales ignored texts from his brother when the family were making their way to Balmoral before the late Queen died.
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It is also reported to contain claims that the King and the duchess exchanged letters in the wake of her interview with Oprah Winfrey.
During the March 2021 interview, Meghan claimed a conversation had taken place with an unnamed member of the Royal Family about how dark their unborn baby Archie’s skin would be while she was pregnant.
The alleged letters between Meghan and the King are said to reveal the identity of two people who aired those “concerns”, The Times reported.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the extracts from Mr Scobie’s book.
