‘When we were finishing the book and waiting for Archie’s birth so we could include his first days at home, we were, like, “This book will warm everyone’s hearts, it will just be a beautiful love story.” And of course, it completely changed.’
He and Durand had, he says, planned a softer book when they first (‘out of courtesy’) notified Kensington Palace that they were writing it – a book chronicling the romance, the marriage, the pregnancy and the birth of Archie. There is, critics observe, so much detail – not all of it flattering – about the Sussexes, and so many direct quotes, that the notoriously privacy-seeking couple would surely have kicked off if they were not to some degree in cahoots. And even more so when he and Durand (and indeed the Sussexes) have all firmly declared that there has been no cooperation from, or collaboration with, Harry and Meghan. Particularly when he’s so insistent that everything in Finding Freedom has been checked twice.
Well, everyone’s vain about something, but it’s odd of Scobie to get into such a tangle over who said what to whom and when. I was just checking: Andrew Morton published Diana’s.’ Scobie interrupts: ‘Oh, how old was he?’ ‘He was 40.’ ‘Oh, OK. Because there, on his professionally transcribed page, is the question: ‘How old are you?’ Answered by Scobie with: ‘I’m 33, I just turned 33.’ To which Billen replies: ‘Wow, Omid. Which came as news to Billen when I checked with him. But we never discussed my date of birth.’ Meanwhile, Scobie’s book – which shot straight to the top of The Sunday Times book charts, selling 31,000 copies in the first five days of publication – is its own reward.ĭidn’t Billen ask him? ‘He referred to my birthday: July 4.’ But did Billen not ask how old Scobie was? ‘He was trying to insinuate that I was the same age as Andrew Morton, and I could see the path he was trying to go down. I would challenge anyone to find a negative story I’ve written about the Royal Family full stop since I started.’ Post- Finding Freedom, the Cambridges would probably not agree. There are a lot of people who say I only write positively about the Sussexes. But also to do it in an environment she felt safe in.’ And how did she know Scobie would provide that safe environment? ‘I guess my work spoke for itself – I was always careful what I reported.’ It is, he adds, something he enjoys about covering the royal beat for a US audience: the attitude in the States is ‘celebratory – I enjoy the more positive take on things. How did Scobie score that invitation? ‘I think,’ he says, his voice a model of received pronunciation, ‘she wanted to share that last moment because it is a moment in history.
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