MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry are “making very little progress” in healing their rift with the Royals – but the “door is open” for reconciliation, their close pal Omid Scobie said.
The Finding Freedom author today released an updated epilogue for his biography based on the Sussexes past year, on the 24th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, while spilling on the royal row.
He revealed the couple are now keen to take “accountability and ownership” for their role in the rift after sensationally quitting the Royal Family.
Scobie said they were then simply “desperate to get their story out there” when they sat down with Oprah Winfrey for an explosive interview in March this year, which reignited the already fraught feud.
But as Meghan and Harry enjoy their new life stateside, it seems the distance is proving a wedge between any resolution.
“When we speak to sources close to the couple and also sources close to the royal family, there is this feeling that very little progress is being made,” Scobie explained.
“However, some feelings have subsided because time has done its things, so the door is very much open for those conversations to happen at some point.
“Now I think that when and if we hear more of their journey towards healing these family relations and the issues that they’ve faced, it’s going to be from them themselves.”
But the revised chapter, penned by Scobie and Carolyn Durand, added that “as difficult as recent years have been, neither Harry nor Meghan have any regrets about the decisions they have made”.
Scobie then dubbed allegations that Meg had bullied Palace staff “revenge” by the Firm, after they were hurled into crisis mode ahead of the Oprah interview airing.
“For me, it’s impossible to come to any other conclusion that this is some sort of revenge from the institution that we saw pulled into action just before the Oprah interview came out,” he said.
“One of the sources that we spoke to in the book said it was the classic “Oppo dump” which you see before a presidential election.”
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The new epilogue also says that “sources close to the Sussexes” told how the royal reaction to the claims made in the interview “was not positive.”
Harry and Meghan want at least “some acknowledgment” of the misery they faced for them to move on and “progress”, the source continued.
The Sussexes already ruffled royal feathers after telling CBS anchor and ally of privacy-conscious Meghan, Gayle King, that private peace talks were “unproductive”.
The ‘This Morning’ presenter revealed the contents of a conversation she had with the couple in the wake of the Oprah interview, which was branded a “shocking breach of trust”.
NEW EDITION
But even though the eyes of the world remain fervently focused on the Duke and Duchess, Scobie said they will not shy away from the public eye.
“It’s not that they want to disappear or not be seen. It’s simply that they want to choose what they keep private and what they share with the world.”
Scobie, a journalist favoured by the Sussexes, said of the first edition that the couple “did not authorise the book and have never been interviewed for it”.
As well as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s reaction to Prince Philip’s death, publisher HarperCollins earlier teased that the latest edition will share “behind the scenes” details of the Oprah interview as well as their move to California.
