TORONTO -- A new book purporting to take readers behind the scenes of Prince Harry and Meghan鈥檚 courtship and their subsequent escape from the pressure of being royals is now available.
Penned by two royal reporters, Harper's Bazaar royal editor Omid Scobie and Elle magazine royal correspondent Carolyn Durand, the book 鈥淔inding Freedom鈥� goes into the waves the couple made in the British Royal Family, from their first few dates to the present day, and reveals new details behind the couple鈥檚 friction with Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Scobie told 麻豆影视 Channel on Tuesday that the title refers to the constrictions of royal life and lack of privacy that Harry and Meghan found uncomfortable.
鈥淚n many ways, Harry and Meghan have found that freedom they were looking for [now],鈥� he said. Part of that, he said, is 鈥渢he freedom to speak about whatever you want in any way that you want.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very interesting that we see a couple now, as non-working royals, free to speak about systemic racism and social issues that they weren鈥檛 able to touch on as openly when they were working members of the Royal Family.鈥�
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the most prominent royals to publicly support the Black Lives Matter movement. Speaking about these issues would have been 鈥渃onsidered too political鈥� for working royals, Scobie said.
A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan has said they did not give interviews or contribute to the book themselves in any way.
But according to Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal commentator, the book 鈥渃ontains all sorts of intimate details 鈥� [that] must have come, and this is admitted, from their inner circle, their close friends.
鈥淚t will be perceived as this is their side of the story,鈥� he told 麻豆影视 Channel on Tuesday.
Previous excerpts of the book have shown the rift between Harry and his brother William was growing long before Harry decided to move away from formal royal duties.
An excerpt published in late July in The Sunday Times claimed that William didn鈥檛 want his brother to be 鈥渂lindsided by lust鈥� in his relationship with Meghan, and that Harry had taken offence to what he perceived as a 鈥渟nobbishness鈥� displayed by William.
Harry and Meghan were married in 2018 in a wedding televised to millions. But the couple鈥檚 time in the royal family has been far from fairy tale. In 2016, Harry condemned British tabloids for their hounding of his then-girlfriend, saying she had been subjected to 鈥渁 wave of abuse and harassment鈥� as well as 鈥渙utright sexism and racism.鈥�
Meghan is biracial, and the difference between news coverage of Kate versus coverage of Meghan has often been tinged with racism. Meghan is also attempting to sue the publisher of a British newspaper for invasion of privacy after they published excerpts of a letter she wrote to her father.
鈥淭he mission with this book was to paint a different side to the story,鈥� Scobie said.
He claimed that as well as sources close to Harry and Kate, they had also spoken to sources close to the Cambridges, the Prince of Wales, and 鈥渆ven the Queen herself.鈥�
Scobie said that one of the difficulties of being in the Royal Family was a sense of competition between the respective sections of the family as a whole.
"The keys are the three different households: Kensington Palace, Clarence House and Buckingham Palace,鈥� he explained. 鈥淎nd that creates a very competitive atmosphere, and one that Harry and Meghan often fell victim to. A lot of the time, the information about Harry and Meghan to make them look bad in some of the pages of some of the newspapers actually came from those within the royal households themselves.鈥�
Harry and Meghan made the dramatic move to step away from their roles as senior royals in January, announcing that they would be seeking financial independence and moving to North America.
Harry is sixth in the line for the throne, behind his father, Prince Charles, his brother William, and William's three young children, George, Charlotte and Louis.
He and Meghan now live in California with their 14-month old son, Archie.
Scobie said the pandemic has made things more complicated for everyone, including Harry and Meghan, saying they had expected to 鈥渉it the ground running in California.鈥� Now they have their lives on hold, the same as everyone else.
But he says that as far as he鈥檚 aware, there are no regrets from the couple so far on their decision to leave royal duties behind.
鈥淔rom what I鈥檓 hearing, Harry and Meghan will not be looking back,鈥� he said.
