Meghan’s biographer: It was interesting to hear her use the term ‘the firm’ in Oprah clip

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Omid Scobie5 March 2021
WEST END FINAL

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There are very few moments as a royal correspondent that can get your heart racing. The hysteria that followed the release of clips from the Oprah interview with Meghan and Harry on Sunday night was amusing. Americans are extra invested in the story as they feel Meghan is one of their own who has had a horrendous journey since becoming a royal. I’d imagine that’s why the interview is billed as the Meghan and Harry special — in that order. In my DMs and in my emails from across the States, I get the same message. There is a feeling that this is a woman who was done wrong by the institution.

Fast-forward to Tuesday evening when The Times dropped their splash: a report of allegations that Meghan bullied staff while at Kensington Palace, which her team has strongly denied.

For me the claims were a shock. I don’t want to undermine the experience of anyone who worked with the duchess but I have spent much time with people who worked with the couple, and while I did see staff stressed and emotional from being stuck between the Sussexes and The Firm, incidents of bullying never came up.

The statement put out by Buckingham Palace, that it would be investigating the bullying claims against Meghan, was unprecedented. In the US, the commentary was all about how bad a look it was for the Palace to launch what looked like a pre-emptive strike against Meghan. Her team reinforced this by suggesting there had been a “smear campaign”. To many American correspondents, it looked like a classic ‘oppo dump’ you might see in the final weeks of an election — when the opposition dumps everything it can find to discredit its opponents.

A measure of US interest is when you start getting texts from White House correspondents who simply must know everything that is happening.

The new preview from the Oprah special dropped into my inbox on Wednesday night: this was the first time you heard Meghan speak. Who was in charge of that timing, I wonder. I thought it was so interesting to hear Meghan use the term “The Firm” when she accused them of “perpetuating falsehoods”. From those around Harry and Meghan, and from my many hours working with them on my biography Finding Freedom, they have always been careful to keep family and the institution separate. Prince Philip has often referred to the family as ‘The Firm’ so I am curious to know who she was referring to.

If they really are bringing the royal family into it then there will no doubt be a reaction from the palace — this could be the start of a very ugly war of words. The war of the Waleses part two.

I got a text from a very prolific US journo friend of mine that just said: “the gloves are off”. That’s the feeling in the US — there is an appetite to uncover the darker side of the royals and find out what happened to Harry and Meghan. There’s a resistance to that in the UK. We don’t want to hear that our monarchy is flawed. But over there, they want the tea.

Omid Scobie is the co-author of Finding Freedom and the royal editor at Harper’s Bazaar US

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