No wonder chess is called the game of kings.
Because despite the prim, civilized exterior, quite a bit of four-dimensional chess is being played behind palace walls in Britain, according to Omid Scobie's latest book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival.
Now that "the varnish has gone" since Queen Elizabeth II's death in 2022, "we're now able to look at what's in front of us," the longtime royal correspondent told E! News ahead of the book's Nov. 28 release. "People in Britain, across the Commonwealth, and even around the world, are more open to having discussions about the future of an irrelevancy of the royal family."
While Finding Freedom, Scobie's 2020 release with Carolyn Durand, probed the circumstances surrounding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's departure from the upper ranks of the Firm, Endgame digs into the system that allowed those circumstances to flourish—foremost being a cozy quid pro quo arrangement between the palace and the British press that Harry also detailed scathingly in his memoir Spare.
But his new book isn't a sequel to Finding Freedom, Scobie said. Rather, with the queen gone, her son King Charles III in charge and his eldest boy, Prince William, next in line to the throne, it's essential to know where the royals stand—not only as publicly funded entities that represent the U.K. on the world stage, but also with each other.
"We're at a crossroads in terms of what the family does next," Scobie explained, "and I think it's important for us to be informed on the inner workings of any public institution."
Here are the biggest revelations about the royal family from Endgame:
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Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival by Omid Scobie
For more royal revelations, check out Endgame for yourself.
Charles and William Are Hardly in "Lockstep"
While most of the focus has been on the rift between Prince William and brother Prince Harry, William and dad King Charles III's relationship has been plagued by "tension and one-upmanship," royal correspondent Omid Scobie writes in Endgame. He describes the king's Buckingham Palace (often referred to as just "the palace") and the Prince of Wales' Kensington Palace as "hives of competing agendas."
Since 75-year-old Charles' reign is going to be exponentially shorter than his mother's, Queen Elizabeth II's death at 96 putting an end to a 70-year era, William is said to already be burnishing his own kingly credentials apart from his father—and not least because he doesn't want to be tarnished by any perceived mistakes made by his predecessors.
For instance, Scobie notes, a source close to William said it was the heir who took the lead on stripping scandal-cloaked Prince Andrew of his royal patronages and military titles in January 2022. However, the source said, journalists were briefed by those close to the queen that it was a "joined father-son move."
E! News reached out to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace for comment on the book's characterization of William and Charles' relationship and various reported details but has yet to hear back.
William Is Already Doing It His Way
Charles' camp was allegedly incensed when the damage control following William and Kate Middleton's rocky tour of the Caribbean in March 2022 included reports of the prince's plans for modernizing the monarchy once he's on the throne. One aide called it "disrespectful," Scobie wrote, while another source said William was "out of order."
William also took it upon himself to condemn the behavior of his godmother Lady Susan Hussey—a former lady-in-waiting to the late queen—at a Buckingham Palace reception in November 2022. (Lady Susan, who resigned from her role as an unpaid lady of the household after the incident, persisted in quizzing British-born Ngozi Fulani, the CEO of domestic abuse charity Sistah Space, about where she was "really" from and touched her dreadlocks without asking.)
"Racism has no space in our society," a spokesperson for William said at the time, adding that it was "right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect."
While Charles' office had reacted quickly in calling Lady Susan's comments "unacceptable and deeply regrettable" after Fulani detailed the encounter on social media, a palace source told Scobie that they interpreted William's "rash...knee-jerk response" as an attempt to "disassociate, instead of thinking as a team."
How the Palace Courts the Media
Charles hosted "a handful of trusted royal reporters" for a lavish dinner and overnight stay at Dumfries House, one of his estates in Scotland, in February 2020, according to Endgame. Scobie writes that the then-future king made the gesture in hopes of keeping Britain's most influential papers "onside" in the wake of Harry and Meghan Markle's announcement that they'd be stepping down as senior royals.
Scobie notes in the book that he was not invited to this gathering.
And before the so-called "Sandringham Summit" in January where Harry discussed the terms of his and Meghan's exit with his brother, father and grandmother, William took matters into his own hands to get ahead of the story, according to Scobie.
He writes that, when the Sunday Times reported that William had told a friend, "I've put my arm around my brothers all our lives. I can't do it anymore," the quotes echoed what he'd told the paper's editor at a pub the previous fall, after Harry and Meghan had filed lawsuits against multiple newspapers.
Neither Buckingham nor Kensington Palace has ever officially commented on their media policy or specific interactions with media outlets. But "palace sources," Scobie notes, told the Daily Mail in 2022 that it was "absolutely wrong" to suggest that anyone working at the palace had supplied damaging or confidential information about Harry and Meghan to members of the press when they were senior royals.
Princess Diana "Cosplay"
Kate's sartorial nods to Princess Diana are not only deliberate, they're a team effort, according to Endgame.
Whatever the look, it's "always discussed" with William (and the same went for Meghan and Harry when they were senior royals), a source who worked with both wives told Scobie.
And in some instances, the source said, someone would be tasked "to go back and pull images of Diana at a certain place or time for ideas."
How Charles Responded to Meghan and Harry's Oprah Interview
Meghan told Oprah Winfrey in their 2021 interview that Harry was privy to "concerns and conversations" about how dark their first child's skin might be. (The queen and Prince Philip were not part of these conversations, Oprah stressed afterward.)
After the interview, Charles wrote to Meghan to express his sadness over the division in the family and his disappointment that she and Harry had aired so much publicly, according to the Telegraph, which reported on their supposedly private written correspondence in April 2021.
Sources said that Charles especially wanted to make it clear to his daughter-in-law that he didn't believe the remarks in question were made with, as Scobie puts it, "ill will" or "casual prejudice." Meghan tried to explain, per a royal insider, that it was an example of "lingering unconscious bias and ignorance" that needed addressing.
After a "respectful back-and-forth," Charles and Meghan probably still didn't see the incident the same way, a second source told Scobie, but "there was at least a feeling that both had been heard."
The palace said in a statement after the interview was broadcast in the U.K. that the issues the couple raised, "particularly that of race," were "concerning," and while "some recollections may vary" the family would address them privately.
William and Kate Just Never Mentioned It
While William told reporters, "We are very much not a racist family," in response to questions raised by his brother's Oprah sit-down, he and Kate have allegedly never spoken to Harry and Meghan about the issues they raised in their interview.
"The silence has caused a lot of confusion and upset," a family source told Scobie.
E! News has reached out to a rep for Harry and Meghan but has not yet heard back.
Why Harry Found Out About the Queen's Death From the BBC
Harry wrote in Spare that he got no reply from William when he texted to see how his brother planned to get to Scotland from England to be with their ailing grandmother at Balmoral on Sept. 8, 2022, so he booked his own British Airways flight and went by himself. As they were landing, Harry checked his phone: He saw a text from Meghan asking him to call ASAP and the BBC News alert that the queen had died.
While he was in the air, according to Endgame, his team tried to get the palace to hold off on releasing the death announcement until Harry had been informed personally by family.
They "literally had to beg for them to wait for his plane to land," a close family source told Scobie, "and they reluctantly agreed to hold the statement back for a little bit." But Harry's plane had to circle for awhile due to stormy weather, and during that time the palace sent the release.
According to Scobie, any later reports attributed to palace sources saying that Charles had broken the news to Harry before the world found out, or had at least tried to call him, were just the royals trying to save face. (Harry also mentioned no such attempts in Spare.)
"They could have waited just a little longer," a friend of Harry's told Scobie, "it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all."
William Made a Surprise Show of Support for Harry as They Mourned the Queen
Though his diminished stature within the family meant Harry didn't wear his military uniform to official royal events (such as Charles' coronation) anymore, he was allowed to wear his Blues and Royals, Number 1 dress attire to stand vigil by the queen's casket as she lay in state at Westminster Hall.
As previously reported, the queen's "ER" initials had been removed from the uniform's epaulettes, as the insignia was an honor reserved only for official aides-de-camp, a title he no longer had. But according to Endgame, Harry also found that someone had removed the ornamental braided cord known as an aiguillette from his outfit.
A family source told Scobie that there were still certain people "determined to make [Harry] feel like s--t, determined to continue punishing him for leaving."
Harry considered just wearing a suit to the vigil, Scobie writes, but then he found out that William planned to remove the aiguillette from his uniform as well, "a rare show of support from his brother and one a source said he appreciated."
Where Charles and Camilla Stand With Harry and Meghan
After Spare came out in January, Harry did call his father in an attempt to start unpacking the many issues and perceived slights he detailed in his book. A friend of Harry's told Scobie that it was ultimately an "awkward conversation" and, while no one raised his voice, Charles was "cold and brief rather than open to any proper dialogue."
When Harry put in a request to see his dad while he was in the U.K. in April, according to Scobie, Charles had an aide let his son know he was "too busy" to meet. (The following month, the world was privy to the lack of interaction between father and son when Harry flew in solo for Charles' coronation, sat in the third row at Westminster Abbey, and then flew right home to be with son Archie on his fourth birthday.)
While Scobie describes Harry and Charles' communication nowadays as "infrequent," the Sussexes do keep the king in the loop with updates on their young family and send him pictures of grandkids Archie and Lili, 2.
As for Queen Camilla, Charles' mistress-turned-wife of 18 years has said to other people that she feels "great sympathy" for what Meghan went through but, a royal source told Scobie, she "has no respect" for how Harry and Meghan "handled themselves."
William Believes Harry Has Been Brainwashed by Therapy
After all the airing of the grievances on Harry's end, William believes his brother has been "brainwashed by an 'army of therapists,'" a source told Scobie.
(Harry wrote in Spare that William once told him he'd like to attend one of his therapy sessions "because he suspected I was being 'brainwashed.'" His brother never actually went to one, Harry added.)
In response to Harry telling Oprah that William and Charles were "trapped" by the royal system, and therefore he felt "huge compassion" for them, a source close to William told Scobie that the future king felt "far from [trapped] in any system."
After the coronation, Harry told a friend that he'd come to accept that his family issues, particularly with his brother, may never be resolved. According to Scobie, he told the friend, "Whether we get an apology or accountability, who knows? Who really cares at this point?"
What Kate Really Thinks of Harry and Meghan
Kate was never really a fan of Meghan's, a source who used to work with Kate told Scobie. And the current Princess of Wales is pretty much done with Meghan and her husband.
She and Harry were close and Kate "will always look back fondly" on the good times, another source who knows the family told Scobie, but she just doesn't trust Harry anymore "after all their interviews."