Endgame author Omid Scobie criticizes translated excerpts from royal book

The author of a forthcoming book about the royal family has urged people to wait for its release, saying media reports are using “bad translations and quotes without context”.

Omid Scobie, a royal commentator, will see his book Endgame – which describes the “fight for survival” within the royal family – published on Tuesday.

Excerpts from the book were published in the American and French media.

But Scobie said that not all of the passages mentioned are accurate.

“Whether you love my work or hate it, all I ask is that if you're reading coverage about what's supposedly inside Endgame, please also read the book itself,” Scobie, a former Yahoo! X's royal news editor wrote on Twitter previously.

His statements came at a time when several British newspapers published what were said to be excerpts from the book, which was published this week in the French magazine Paris Match.

“It has been extremely frustrating to watch news sites publish stories based on contextless, poorly translated excerpts from the French miniseries of Endgame,” Scobie told the BBC.

He expressed disappointment at media reports that he said left readers “thinking that this is how the material—much of which is almost unrecognizable from the original English manuscript—appears in the book.”

In British press reports said to be based on excerpts published in Paris Match magazine, the allegations relate to supposed details of conversations between the Duke of Sussex and his father, the King, earlier this year, and the relationship between Prince Harry and his brother. Prince William.

Separately, The Sun published allegations about the content of letters exchanged between the King, who was then the Prince of Wales, and the Duchess of Sussex following her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

BBC News has contacted the Duke and Duchess for comment. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

Speculation following the publication of Scobie's previous royal book, Finding Freedom – which chronicled the Sussexes' retreat as members of the royal family – led to the royal couple denying their involvement.

The 42-year-old journalist has consistently denied that the Duke and Duchess were direct sources for his work, recently adding that he was not friends with Meghan and that “the Sussexes had nothing to do” with his latest book.

The Royal Family continues to provide inspiration to authors, book editors and TV commissioners. Prince Harry's memoir Spare has retained its position as Amazon's best-selling book of 2023 following its release in January.

This success sparked media speculation that Meghan would publish her own memoirs, but sources close to the Sussexes poured cold water on the rumours, telling BBC correspondent Sean Coughlan that there was no basis for this speculation.

The Sussexes are also emerging producers in their own right. Speaking on the red carpet at Variety's Power of Women gala in Los Angeles last week, Meghan told reporters that her production company, Archewell, had “a lot of exciting things on the list.”

“I can't wait until we can announce it, but I'm really proud of what we're creating. My husband loves it too. It's really fun,” she said.

Netflix's royal drama The Crown ends its seven-year run next month with the release of its final six episodes. Two competing films from Netflix and Amazon, Based on a 2019 BBC Newsnight interview With the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, currently in production.