As Omid Scobie promotes his first (cowritten) novel Royal Spin, he’s been fielding royal-reporter questions. The British press kept screaming about how Royal Spin is obviously about the Duchess of Sussex, but it really is NOT. Their refusal to actually read the book and judge for themselves made them really come across as morons. Well, People Magazine managed to ask Scobie some interesting questions, questions which were not “so, this book is about Meghan, right??!” Scobie chatted about where things really stand between Prince Harry and Prince William, and what the brothers’ years-long rift says about the Scooter King.
Royal author Omid Scobie is sharing his insights on the state of brothers Prince Harry and Prince William’s relationship. Scobie, who recently published his debut novel Royal Spin and previously covered the royal family in his books Finding Freedom and Endgame, says the dynamic between the brothers looks much the same as it did three years ago.
In 2023, “Harry was still waiting for that moment of accountability from his brother — an opportunity to talk about many of the grievances that have built up to this point and be able to move on from that,” Scobie tells PEOPLE.
Now, in 2026, “Nothing has changed,” he says. “The expectations and wants and wishes of Prince Harry are exactly the same as they were then — and none of them have been met.”
From 2020-2022, Scobie says Harry made “repeated attempts” to reach out to William both directly and “through mutual friends and individuals that they both deem important in their lives,” despite the fractious dynamic. While Scobie has recently seen what he calls “some moments of warmth” between Harry and his father, King Charles, in recent years, he says “that hasn’t happened with William.”
“The ball has been in William’s court for some time now,” Scobie says. “And he’s chosen not just to knock it back, but to kick it in the other direction. I think in terms of family, it takes two, and I think we have seen some effort between Harry and his father go both ways.” In contrast, the Prince of Wales, according to Scobie, is “avoiding dealing with this matter whatsoever.”
“I hate to bring this back to William’s role, but as a future king, you would think that one of the things he should be able to navigate easily is family,” he says. “One day, he’ll be the head of the royal family; he’ll be the head of the Church of England. There’ll be a lot of things that he stands for, or will seemingly stand for. And if he’s unable to mend a fracture — for all the reasons that we know are behind it — with his brother, I think that also says something about him as a future monarch that may not work in his favor.”
Over the years, several historians and non-co-opted royal journalists have said the same thing, which is: what does it say about the future (Scooter) king that he can’t bury the hatchet with his brother after all of this time? What does it say about William’s (lack of) Christian forgiveness? What does it say about William’s temperament? Something which is harder to reconcile for royalists is: even if you acknowledge that Prince William has some right to have hurt feelings and feelings of betrayal, you have to acknowledge that Harry has a right to feel betrayed as well, and that Harry was also deeply hurt by everything that went down. Harry is the one showing the ability to say his piece and move on (literally in another country), while William regularly rages out and throws international pissy-baby tantrums over every little thing Harry and Meghan do and say. Because at a fundamental level, William is angry that he can’t control the Sussexes. And that speaks to how William will behave as scooter king as well.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
