King and Prince William ‘locked in struggle over future of monarchy’
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The King and the Prince of Wales are locked in “an increasing struggle” as they compete for public approval and battle to secure the future of the monarchy, a new royal book has claimed.
Omid Scobie’s Endgame, published on Tuesday, paints a dire picture of the relationship between the King and his elder son, suggesting they are working in silo.
Prince William’s impatience to take the top job is said to infuriate his father, who has repeatedly been left seething at perceived attempts to upstage him.
The Prince, 42, did not consider the King “competent enough” to properly deal with the Duke of York scandal, Scobie claims, and could not understand why he did not take a hard stance against him sooner.
“Charles’s reluctance baffled William, who didn’t have much confidence in his father to do the right thing anyway,” the book says.
A source close to the Prince is quoted as saying at the time: “William [doesn’t] think his father is competent enough, quite frankly. Though they share passions and interests, their style of leadership is completely different.”
Royal aides have since suggested that it was Prince William who eventually took the lead and persuaded Elizabeth II to take decisive action.
However, Scobie says such claims were dismissed by one source close to the King as being “off the mark” and part of a personal agenda.
“William, or his staff, I should say, will always be quick to play up his efforts,” the source is quoted as saying. “There is an almost frenzied push for William to be seen as ready for the throne, despite an entire generation coming beforehand.”
Similarly, the King is said to have been frustrated that despite his record on environmental campaigning, he was not included in the launch of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize.
Last March, en route home from the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s “tone deaf” Caribbean tour, the couple’s aides told journalists that lessons had been learned as they discussed the “blueprint” for his kingship in the future.
Scobie suggests that the King was “furious over William’s effrontery” and considered such comments to be a deliberate attempt to upstage him.
There was similar anger when Prince William’s team was quick to condemn Lady Susan Hussey following the royal race row last December.
“It was a rash… knee-jerk response,” a Buckingham Palace source is quoted as saying. “The feeling was they wanted to disassociate, instead of thinking as a team.”
Scobie claims Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace have become “hives of competing agendas and different ideas about how to modernise” as each embraces a very different approach.
‘Prince Harry considered an outsider’
The biographer details the all-but-lost relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry, claiming the elder brother considers the younger as “no longer useful as a helpful distraction or collateral damage”.
Prince William has spoken of Prince Harry’s decision to “defect” to America, and has wanted to distance himself from the Sussexes since the Royal wedding.
“Disappointed in Harry’s life decisions and rooted in his ignited, newfound dedication to the Crown, William now considers his brother an outsider,” Scobie states. “Especially since the release of Harry’s memoir, which not only gave further details surrounding the Sussexes’ decision to step back from their royal roles but also William’s part in it.
“No longer useful as a helpful distraction or collateral damage, William had been wanting to distance himself from his brother ever since Harry’s marriage to Meghan – whom the then Duke of Cambridge took a disliking to from the start.”
Panorama interview
In particular, he accuses the Prince of Wales of discrediting his late mother’s “candid and truthful” words to disgraced journalist Martin Bashir to protect the institution.
The investigation into the Panorama interview, in which the BBC undertook not to re-broadcast it other than in specific exceptional circumstances, was a “golden opportunity” to finally silence Princess Diana, he said.
“Prince William personally contacted BBC executives to take whatever steps were necessary to ensure that the interview never again sees the light of day,” the book states. “With the help of Diana’s older son, they finally had the chance to remove her voice from the record.”
Prince Harry, on the other hand, knew “his mother just wanted to be heard”.
“To Harry, a friend of his later told me, the purpose of the Duke’s brief and targeted response was to acknowledge the outcome but also protect his mother’s legacy and her words,” Scobie says.
‘Prince Harry confronted King over bullying’
Prince Harry was left so upset by Buckingham Palace’s investigation into his wife’s alleged bullying of staff that he confronted his father and brother over why it was kept private.
The Prince, Scobie says, “was gutted that his family would watch this kind of dirty game play out”.
The book states that after Prince Philip’s funeral, Prince Harry confronted his father and brother about why nothing was done on Meghan’s behalf.
Scobie writes that the King replied: “You must understand, darling boy, the institution can’t just tell the media what to do!”
The writer quotes an unnamed source saying that Prince William “wanted the [bullying] story out there at the time”.
“When Piers [Morgan] called the Duchess of Sussex “Pinocchio Princess” and then a ‘race-baiter’ on Good Morning Britain after she admitted that she had suicidal ideations during her time as a working royal (also asserting that there was unconscious bias within the family), it was Camilla who quietly thanked him for defending the Firm,” Scobie claims.
“‘[Camilla] will never publicly comment on anything or speak ill of others, but she will always know someone who can do that for her,’ a former Palace aide told me.”
‘Transitional monarch’
The King knows he is a “transitional monarch” who does not have the same “pulling power” as his late mother, Scobie claims.
The book is scathing about the King’s personal abilities, describing him as “indecisive, temperamental, and often in the middle of sticky situations”.
It says his relatively short reign will “never reach the national treasure status” that his mother achieved and that the institution is simply “riding out” these years until the Waleses come to the fore.
Scobie says the King “should have known better” than to express frustration over his malfunctioning fountain pens in the early days of his reign, suggesting that the testy display raised questions about whether he was “up for the job”.
He claims that the King was immediately irked and overwhelmed by the level of work involved with his daily red boxes and had brought “old habits and coarse practices” to the role.
The lack of diversity at Buckingham Palace is also criticised as staff are accused of adhering to what they know, which is “often outdated and ineffectual”.
‘Harry called King after Spare publication’
The King is said to have been “genuinely sad” about the disintegration of the situation with Harry and Meghan.
Although he was “angry” about the couple’s Netflix documentary series, he did not want people to speak ill of his son in front of him.
Scobie claims the release of the six-part show gave him pause as he “realised how bad things had become”.
Although father and son did not have any contact for months, Harry is said to have called the King shortly after the publication of his memoir, Spare, in January.
“It was an awkward conversation, but he knew if he didn’t make those first steps, there would never be any progress,” a friend of Prince Harry’s is quoted as saying.
“There were no raised voices, no arguments...but the King was cold and brief rather than open to any proper dialogue.”
Meanwhile, the book claims that senior royals were all united against Harry in his decision to take on the media in court.
When it came to the Coronation, the King is said to have told Prince Harry he “hadn’t decided” whether to invite him until the last minute.
Prince Andrew’s Garter robes
The book points to the King’s decision to allow Prince Andrew to wear his Garter robes at the Coronation as proof that his “soft spot for his brother remains exposed”.
Prince Harry is said to be “surprised” that his father continues to pay Andrew’s seven-figure annual private security bill, despite “cutting him off” when he stepped away from the Royal family.
Meanwhile, the King insisted he was powerless to stop his errant younger brother from taking part in Garter day this year.
“He held his hands up and said, ‘I can’t stop him,’ but it felt as if he didn’t want to stop him,” a family source is quoted as saying.
Scobie writes: “It exposed Charles as weak-kneed when it comes to his brother (and his family in general).”
At the height of Prince Andrew’s downfall, the King is said to have been “tearful” over his fears for his brother’s mental health.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh come in for particularly waspish criticism. Scobie claims the couple lack pizazz and that no one outside the UK knows who they are.
