Friends of Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, have lashed out at Omid Scobie’s portrayal of her in his new bombshell book Endgame.
The royal is reportedly “furious” at her depiction in the book, which claims she did little to support Meghan Markle when she was struggling to adjust to life as a member of the Royal Family. The author also accuses Sophie of being “casually bigoted” and claims she ignored Meghan outside Westminster Abbey at the late Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral, as did Princess Kate and Queen Camilla.
Friends of Sophie have said it is “blatantly untrue” that she did little to help Meghan settle in and pointed out that she actually went out of her way to make friends with the Duchess of Sussex in the months after her wedding to Prince Harry, noting that she invited her to tea at her Surrey home, Bagshot Park.
A senior royal source told the Sun: “It was just the two of them at and they talked for hours. Meghan had so many questions and Sophie, who knows what it’s like navigating your way through the early days of transition from a commoner to a royal, gave freely of her advice.
“Sophie found Meghan likeable and engaging and told her that she could call her any time when she needed advice about dealing with some of the trickier royals.
“She was quite surprised when that was the last she heard from Meghan. As she noted, it would’ve been nice to receive a return invitation to Frogmore Cottage (where Meghan was then living with Harry and is less than half an hour from Bagshot).”
In Endgame, Mr Scobie discusses Sophie’s Telegraph interview where she was asked about her reaction to Harry and Meghan’s sitdown interview with Oprah Winfrey, where the pair revealed that a member of the Royal Family had discussed what colour Prince Archie’s skin would be.
Sophie said: “You know, if you’re not into chat shows, there’s no reason why you should know who she (Oprah) is. Certainly not in this country, anyway.”
The author then berates her response, and wrote: “Whether it was a ‘joke’ (as a source close to Edward and Sophie later claimed it was) or not, the comments about the world’s most successful black woman and one of the biggest faces in entertainment made them seem stuffy or tin-eared at best, and casually bigoted at worst.”
