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.