Omid Scobie claims King Charles branded Prince Harry a ‘fool’ after Duke’s Netflix series – as insiders hit back at his new book and insist Royal staff were ‘on eggshells around the Sussexes trying to keep them happy’ after their engagement

• Royal author Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame is released tomorrow 

King Charles III has been sensationally accused of branding his son Prince Harry ‘that fool’ following the Duke of Sussex’s bombshell Netflix documentary.

Harry made a series of allegations against the Royal Family in the series released in December last year as part of his £80million deal with the streaming network.

This prompted a furious reaction from his father according to a new book about the Royal Family by Omid Scobie, the royal author dubbed ‘Meghan’s mouthpiece’.

An extract from the book – due to be released tomorrow – in The Sun on Sunday said Mr Scobie wrote: ‘At the Palace, heads were in hands and migraines were brewing.

‘(The show) took the wind out of everyone’s sails,’ said one aide. ‘(He) went from not wanting anyone to talk about his son to openly criticising ‘that fool’.’

King Charles III attends St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk, yesterday

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary was released in December last year

The book also features suggestions that Prince William briefed against Harry, but these were blasted as ‘outrageous’ last night by friends of the Prince of Wales.

READ MORE Prince William’s allies hit out at ‘outrageous’ suggestions he briefed against Prince Harry following claims by ‘Meghan’s mouthpiece’ Omid Scobie

Supporters have defended William, expressing their anger and frustration that Mr Scobie was ‘peddling’ what they described as conspiracy theories ‘dressed up as fact’.

In extracts from Endgame, his second book attacking the Royal Family – as well as interviews to publicise it – Scobie has suggested that William ‘prioritised his loyalty to the monarchy’ over his brother and actively leaked information about Harry and Meghan to undermine them.

Kensington Palace has remained silent on the furore, but the frustration of those loyal to William was clear. One told the Mail that Scobie’s depiction of the heir to the throne was the ‘very opposite’ of William’s personal mantra.

‘He has always been very tight-lipped when it comes to his family and made clear to anyone within his orbit that he would not do ‘deals’ with the media,’ they said.

‘Like Harry, he is scarred by his childhood experiences, seeing his mother and father engaged in what was dubbed ‘the war of the Waleses’. He never wanted history to repeat itself.

‘That was something that he and Harry were meant to be united on.’

Another added: ‘It’s one thing writing a critique of the Royal Family. That’s freedom of expression. But it’s another thing to peddle conspiracy theories dressed up as fact. The suggestion that [royal aides] were briefing negative stories [about Harry and Meghan] is totally fabricated. It just didn’t happen.

Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame about the Royal Family is set to be released tomorrow

William, Harry, Meghan and Charles speak together at Westminster Abbey in March 2019

‘The truth is that everyone was walking on eggshells practically from the engagement trying to keep them happy.’

READ MORE Who is Omid Scobie? Meet Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s biographer who founded a now defunct K-Pop site and hit clubs with Jodie Marsh

In his latest interview, with The Sunday Times, Scobie breathlessly describes William as a hot-headed, power-hungry man who has becoming increasingly willing to allow the Palace to deploy dirty tricks. Aside from the prince occasionally being prone to the famous Windsor temper, it is a complete anathema to those who know him well.

The author also paints the Princess of Wales as an under-achiever, who is too scared of putting a foot wrong to stick her head above the parapet.

‘That will really wind William up,’ said another source.

‘He’s immensely proud of what his wife has achieved. The princess has been the driving force behind a great deal of their work, particularly when it comes to bettering mental health.’

Insiders also maintain that a number of significant claims made by Scobie are ‘just plain wrong’ and ‘rehashed’.

In response to an accusation that King Charles is out of touch and demands his shoelaces are ironed, one source says flatly: ‘That was total bull**** when it first surfaced 20 years ago, and still is now.’

Scobie also raises issues about racism and diversity within Charles’s household. He now accuses two people in royal circles of expressing concern about Prince Archie’s skin colour, but claims libel laws prevent him from naming them.

Meghan, Harry, William and Kate on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in July 2018

Questions also remain about the sourcing of huge swathes of the book.

READ MORE Meghan Markle personally rang Omid Scobie after learning he had been sent threats on social media, new book reveals

Harry and Meghan have moved to distance themselves from it and Scobie has incredulously claimed he is not part of the ‘Sussex camp’, despite a wealth of intimate detail about letters, phone calls, text messages and conversations between themselves and other members of the Royal Family.

Meghan has previously been forced to apologise for misleading the High Court for failing to remember emails she had exchanged with an aide to help Scobie with his previous Sussex-friendly book, Finding Freedom, after earlier stating she had no dealings with it.

In Endgame, Scobie openly details private conversations he had with multiple members of their staff. And he even boasts about a short phone call he had with Meghan herself after she married Harry.

It came at a time Mr Scobie was being harassed online over his allegiance to the duchess.

According to an excerpt seen by the Mail, he says he received a call that he thought was from a member of staff with whom he had been discussing one of her forthcoming royal engagements.

He writes: ‘Hi Omid!’ a female voice chirped…. ‘It’s Meghan’.

‘I put my iced coffee down, not quite sure if the call was a prank. ‘We saw your name keep coming up on the phone… and I just wanted to say hi, see how you’re doing?’, the duchess is alleged to have said.

William and Kate welcome South Korea’s president at Horse Guards Parade on November 21

The recollection will further call into question the nature of their relationship.

READ MORE Charles breaks cover: King appears in high spirits as he heads to church in Sandringham

Indeed while The Sunday Times reports him saying carefully: ‘I didn’t interview her for this book’, it also quotes him boasting about sharing ‘mutual friends’ which ‘helps with getting information and breaking details’.

In new extracts that appeared in the US last night, Mr Scobie makes the claims that Meghan and Kate were encouraged by the palace to dress like Diana.

‘But while finding a trend untouched by Diana’s iconic style is almost impossible, the huge amount of effort that goes into channelling her exact look sometimes goes beyond the pale,’ he writes, the New York Post reported.

Meanwhile Mr Scobie himself, clearly angry at the coverage so far, ranted on social media that the ‘twisting of facts and misquoting going on right now has reached new levels of desperation’ and saying he looked forward to putting the record straight in a series of interviews to publicise his book.

But a pithy review in The New York Times, which has been largely sympathetic to the Sussexes, noted: ‘Much of Scobie’s new book is devoted to setting the record straight on petty slights against the Sussexes….[but] does them no favours’.

It adds: ‘Readers hoping for a final death blow of gossip will be disappointed. We’ve heard much of it before. From Fergie, from Diana, from Charles, from Harry, from Harry, from Harry again.’

Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night.

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