“I myself hadn’t come across stories of bullying” - Royal insider Omid Scobie on Harry and Meghan
Journalist and author Omid Scobie told today’s Good Morning Britain of “sadness” over Buckingham Palace's decision to launch an investigation into Duchess of Sussex bullying claims and says Harry and Meghan have “every right” to share their side of the story through their Oprah interview.
Speaking first about accusations of bullying, he said: “I have spoken to people close to the couple who have of course reacted to the accusations of bullying. I think there’s a sense of sadness in ‘team Sussex’ at the moment because of course a lot of these stories are so far removed from what the couple feel their experience was within the institution.”
Asked why they would be surprised about an investigation, which would be expected of the Queen as an employer, he said: “The word I used was sadness. I think for them they’ve worked very closely with these people. The book you’ve mentioned in the intro that I wrote last year on Harry and Meghan, I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know the people that were close to them and that’s through several generations of their various teams at Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace. I myself hadn’t come across stories of bullying. I’d seen people frazzled and frustrated by being caught in the middle of the Sussexes and the institution on a regular basis.
“So I also understand that anyone’s experience and what they share as their experience during employment needs to be heard. So of course like any responsible business there has to be an investigation. But at the same time it is an unprecedented moment for the palace to announce to the entire world that there will be a HR investigation. This is the institution that has remained dead silent about all of the Prince Andrew accusations, ‘no comment’ was the words given to me time and time again when I asked more questions… When Harry and Meghan accused or were suspicious of staff leaking stories to the British tabloids, again their complaint fell on deaf ears. So it does feel like we have a slightly uneven playing field here. If there are internal investigations, they need to happen across the board.”
Speaking about the couple’s privacy and high-profile interviews, he said: “For me, what does privacy mean? Privacy is about having the ability to control what you share with the world. It’s the right to keep your hospital records private, but perhaps talk about your job or your passions or whatever about yourself in public. For Harry and Meghan, all they wanted to do was take control over the things they felt that they’d lost.”
He added: “They have every right to share their side of the story. Look, myself included, we have all spent the last three/ four years talking about Harry and Meghan on a near daily basis. This is two hours for the couple to share their side of the story. Again I go back to what privacy actually means, it’s the ability to keep certain aspects of your life private and to have the ability to give authorisation to share certain things elsewhere.”
Discussing the Queen and her thoughts he said: “I think anyone who claims to know the thoughts and feelings of the Queen is probably making it up. That is a very tight ring around her. But ultimately, we have to look at the relationship that Harry and Meghan do have with the Queen and Prince Philip. We heard Harry talk a little bit about that on James Corden. I think people will be really surprised to hear more stories about that warm relationship on the interview with Oprah. When Harry and Meghan talk about the Firm or the institution they’re not attacking the Royal family, they’re talking about the machine of the monarchy. That’s what goes on behind the scenes. I think any Royal family member is able to distinguish the two.”
Asked who Harry and Meghan are hoping to speak to through the interview, which will air on ITV on Monday at 9pm, he said: “I think who they want to speak to are the millions of people around the world who have spent the past three or four years reading stories about them and featuring anonymous source quotes about them. This is the first time they actually get to tell their side of the story. We haven’t heard it yet.”
He continued: “I think for the world to understand what it was that they went through. Because of course that is still very much a mystery. There have been people around them who have shared certain snapshots of those difficulties within their time as working members of the Royal family. We haven’t heard it from their own words. Yes a lot of these trailers are very dramatic, but this is small moments from a two-hour special. I think people will be quite surprised once it’s finished airing that it was a lot more balanced than it comes across.”