Prince William ‘has only read passages of Spare’, but rejected two attempts by Harry to set up a meeting via a mutual friend in the months after publication, Omid Scobie book claims
Prince William “only read excerpts” from Prince Harry Spare’s memoirs and “ignored” his brother’s attempts to strike up a conversation through a mutual friend, Omid Scobie has said.
In his new book, End Game, royal author Omid Scobie delves into Prince William and Prince Harry’s relationship following the release of the Duke of Sussex’s memoirs, which hit shelves in January.
In the chapter on the Prince of Wales, Scobie talks about meeting one of the royal family’s former aides and asking whether William and Kate had noticed the “difficulties of being a back-up heir.”
A source said: “(Prince William) read parts but not all…
“Harry’s experience is very different from William’s own children.”
Omid Scobie delves into Prince William and Prince Harry’s relationship following the release of the Duke of Sussex’s memoirs, which hit shelves in January
Elsewhere in the book, Scobie claims that Prince Harry tried to contact his brother twice while he was in London.
At the time, the royal family’s memoirs had only been published for a few weeks, and his attempts to contact Prince William fell on deaf ears.
Scobie states: “In February and March the prince approached a mutual friend in London to try to strike up a conversation with his brother, but attempts were ignored.
“Harry,” the source said, “has decided to “focus on the future rather than the past.”
Prince Harry made a number of damaging statements about his brother in his memoirs, including detailing one alleged incident in which Prince William “pushed him into a dog bowl, which cracked and cut his back” on the Kensington Palace estate.
What’s more, the Duke of Sussex also claimed that the Prince and Princess of Wales “told him to wear” the infamous Nazi carnival costume and “howled with laughter” when they saw him in it.
While promoting his memoirs in January, Prince Harry invited Daily TelegraphBryony Gordon to the family home in Montecito, where he said he was “worried” about the children of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
He then said: “And although William and I talked about it once or twice, and he made it very clear to me, his children are not my responsibility.
Pictured: the cover of Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, which hit shelves in January and caused shock within the royal family.
“I still feel a sense of responsibility knowing that out of these three kids, at least one will be like me, a spare. And it hurts, it worries me.”
In Spare, Prince Harry claimed that King Charles told his late mother on his birthday: “Wonderful!” Now you have given me an heir and a spare – my work is finished.
In a scathing chapter on the future queen, Scobie called Kate “the monarchy’s last shiny thing for many years to come” and claimed her workload was lower than other senior members of the Firm and said she was “technically a part-time royal ” ‘.
Known for his sympathetic reporting on Harry and Meghan, Scobie added that Kate is not known for her “leadership and outgoing personality” like Meghan, who was “another sparkling addition to the royal family tree” before she stepped down.
Scobie recalled that this meant that coverage of Meghan’s engagements during her short time as a member of the royal family was “much less about her fashion choices and more about her work or her role at the firm.”
Scobie also claims that Kate has “no plans to increase her workload for 10 to 15 years” or until her children reach adulthood, and added that she got the nickname “Katy Keene” because the palace press release softens her need to do less by saying she is “eager to learn.”
Scobie clearly writes that Kate’s lifestyle is something most parents could “only dream of” and that palace aides were afraid to force her to do anything that “made her uncomfortable” until the Queen’s death.
He adds that the future queen had five different private secretaries over six years because they all found the role “boring and frustrating”.