Omid Scobie Endgame PART 3

[Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstotheyard]

La Pom Pom Girl is doing the Double Dutch. But who is turning the skipping ropes? Part three/trois/drie of the continuing discussion of Endgame by Omid Scobie. Previous thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/4951834-omid-scobies-new-book-part-2

I've always assumed it was arrogance @thebellagio. She didn't go into the RF wanting to serve the monarchy and fit in, she went into it wanting to change things, control things and have people do things her way. I don't think she had any intention of learning the ropes, because she saw doing that as beneath her. I suspect she also saw Sophie as beneath her and therefore not someone she can learn anything from.

I’m American and don’t consider it particularly American.

It’s not necessarily helpful to bring Trump into every conversation that involves an American.

The only people who have benefited this past week are newspapers, royal correspondents and those who hate the monarchy, the book seems to be a damp squib in sales. Scobie reputation stinks even more than before. The two women’s supporters trolling each other, degrading insults to both of them. The men hardly acknowledged and a family divided. It just feels the most stupidest own goal, at least Harry made lots of money.

Meghan's trouble is that she thinks she knows best about everything even things she knows nothing about. She never thinks she is in the wrong and it's always somebody else's fault. She learns nothing from her mistakes because she doesn't think she makes any.

I'm American too

Again, it reminds me of the quote from the Valentine Low book. "We made the mistake of assuming they wanted to be happy when that's never what they wanted. All along they had their own agenda", or words to that effect.

I don't think she ever wanted to fit in and work as part of a team where she was not, and would never be, the number one. In particular she seems to have resented the fact that Kate would always outrank her. To her, Kate was this bland, reserved person who had never had a job and didn't offer vapid opinions on a lifestyle blog, so she didn't understand how she would always be her superior. I think she massively underestimated Kate. That woman is as tough as they come.

Lol! Stop talking about our dirty laundry! 🤣🤣🤣

And duped someone in order to receive an award recently for speaking out about bullying 😵‍💫

I think you have hit the nail on the head .
There have also been reports that she saw Catherine as inferior to her and there is no way she would curtsy to her ! If Meghan had stayed I can only imagine the rows about tiaras , seating arrangements etc !

The whole "linked, not ranked" thing was 100% about not wanting to acknowledge that Kate outranked her. As was the whole "his grandmother" and "his father" and "your brother" thing, rather than ever, once, the Queen, the King etc. She has always referred to them by their relationships to her to bring them all down to the same level as her - she can't say the words (hence the mock curtsey on Netflix, also). On the one hand, who can blame her - the hierarchy is beyond anachronistic and they're all ridiculous. But, she did choose to marry into it. Pick a side, lady.

The other thing that's struck me about this whole debacle is the number of people who have made money off Meghan "I can't believe I'm not getting paid for this" Markle making a comment about the royal racists on Oprah, an interview that she wasn't paid for. Scobie is making money; journalists are making money; newspapers are making money; publishers are making money; the Dutch version of the original print of Endgame is selling for big money on the second hand market for heaven's sake - literally everybody is making money off the back of that comment, apart from MM. Talk about an own-goal!

The whole "linked, not ranked" thing was 100% about not wanting to acknowledge that Kate outranked her. As was the whole "his grandmother" and "his father" and "your brother" thing, rather than ever, once, the Queen, the King etc. She has always referred to them by their relationships to her to bring them all down to the same level as her - she can't say the words (hence the mock curtsey on Netflix, also). On the one hand, who can blame her - the hierarchy is beyond anachronistic and they're all ridiculous. But, she did choose to marry into it. Pick a side, lady.

I completely agree @Raincloudsonasunnyday.

It boils down to what on earth did she think a hierarchal monarchy was? Did she think that W&K would choose to step down and she could become a Queen?

There seems to have been an utter misunderstanding of the role of the monarchy. And again, this HAS to come back to Harry not explaining it properly.

But then the idea of a self proclaimed campaigning feminist choosing to give her entire life to her husband, living in a foreign country, never having a say in what she did/where she went or being able to ever make a public opinion again for the rest of her life always seemed weird. The juxtaposition was insane.

I've always stated that I never blamed her for finding it hard to fit in. Anyone would struggle to fit into the confines of a royal family without being born into that aristocratic world. Every single one of us on this board would find it hugely challenging to deal with. So I've never ever blamed her for walking away and saying she couldn't cope anymore.

But her actions and behaviour after that? Absolutely her fault.

On the one hand, who can blame her - the hierarchy is beyond anachronistic and they're all ridiculous. But, she did choose to marry into it. Pick a side, lady.

Exactly. If you believe that royal titles and traditions are anachronistic rubbish, fair enough. Logically, it's hard to argue otherwise. But then don't go around calling yourself a Duchess while living on the other side of the world, with a faux monogrammed 'Sussex royal' doormat and announcing the birth of your daughter, who you will call a Princess, with a dinky little coronet.

She and her husband love royal hierarchy. They just don't like that they are not at the top of it.

Talk about an own-goal!

Their strategy is truly terrible. A lesson in how not to do it.

So I've never ever blamed her for walking away and saying she couldn't cope anymore.

That's not what she did though is it?

She and her husband wanted to continue to enjoy the many benefits of royal life. They just didn't want the constraints and the cold rainy days in Stoke.

There seems to have been an utter misunderstanding of the role of the monarchy. And again, this HAS to come back to Harry not explaining it properly.

@thebellagio I refuse to believe that a 30-something year old (as she then was) woman born and bred in LA, who went to a decent university and studied International Relations, who selected show business as her career of choice, and who had in influencer-style blog focused on fashion and food and the celeb-style high-life, needed (or would accept) that her second husband would "tell" her ANYTHING about frankly anything, let alone an institution as reknown as the British royal family. There's absolutely zero excuse for her not having worked out for herself, through her own research, what a monarchical hierarchy is all about.

I don't know anything about - say - Russia's oligarchs. But, I know enough to know how little I know and that if I'm going to marry the second most important one I had better learn something about it. Such bs to suggest she didn't know who Andrew was (thought he was HMQ's butler, holding her handbag), that nobody taught her the national anthem, that she didn't know how to curtsey blah blah blah. Are you an educated, intelligent, independent self-made woman of the world who's better than someone like Kate who's never had a career of her own, or not?

I've lived and worked overseas, and tbh found it worked quite well to avoid having too fixed an opinion on customs I found 'weird', but instead approach it with curiosity (assuming you are in the other country through choice). To try and understand the history and culture, and why people might have the views they do. That doesn't mean agreeing with them, but finding a way to live with differences instead of trying to get the people around you to do things your way. And not to express an opinon until asked unless you've been there a while (and even when asked answer with humility)!

The same applies to other people's families. Curtseying to granny?! Well, I insist teen DD comes down and says a proper 'hello' to her grandmother when my mum comes round, and has a few minutes of polite conversation (and DM asks the usual 'how's school'? back). DD doesn't curtsey 😂but in some cultures DD would be expected to do a lot more than saying hello, she would be expected to come down and wait on her grandmother to show respect. In other cultures/families it wouldn't be an issue if DD didn't bother come downstairs at all.

There are certain countries I simply wouldn't work in (Saudi Arabia anyone?) because I knew there would be aspects that were competely unacceptable to me.

I hope if/when DD settles down with someone she takes the time to consider whether there are any unacceptable (for her) aspects of her partners culture (including family culture), and if so, has worked that through with her prospective partner to think how that might all play out. Not dive in, and then complain afterwards.

I think she just thought she was too good for it. Too experienced, too intelligent, too dynamic. Those dusty palaces (eww!) 😁 boring traditions, uncharismatic dull old royals and slow moving protocol were just too much to bear. She should have just left with her dim witted husband and made what they could of their titles and attachments. But she’s too consumed with anger and spite because nothing went to plan - Covid etc. I think she’s melting down tbh and is taking everyone with her.

I thought everyone Googled a potential partner these days. Even if it's only Tim from IT. Let alone if you're going to give up your life and travel across the world to work for his family under immense public scrutiny.

I agree with you that it's ridiculous to think that a supposedly sophisticated, intelligent woman is incapable of doing her own research on the world's most famous family. I think both of them were desperate to get married and rushed into it without a thought to the consequences. Kind of like what they did when they 'left'. They'd only been dating for about a year, and then long distance, when they got engaged. That might have been fine if they had come from a similar background, had mutual friends and the like. But given that they came from completely different worlds, it was just way too quick.

@Raincloudsonasunnyday I'm not sure that she didn't do her homework. Remember that Meghan comes from the US, where anything is possible, where in theory anyone can be President (as long as they're born in the US), where you can rise as far as your talents and popularity will take you - and that's particularly true in the entertainment industry. I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that Meghan figured that she and Harry (remember how popular cheeky, fun Harry used to be?) could be a bigger draw for the crowds than staid and sensible William and Kate and they could then leverage that popularity to demand greater status within the RF. Her (wilful?) ignorance about the hierarchy that exists and possibly her assumption that it could be got around would explain why it would appear that she was merely ignorant. But maybe she wasn't, she was just banking on being able to change things.

All of these questions within these discussions are why I think Oprah was such a terrible interviewer. Why wasn't she asking these fundamental questions?

Because she wanted a scoop! She wanted those 'OMG!!!!' moments that would dominate the airwaves. It didn't serve Oprah's purpose to probe too deeply or ask decent follow-up questions. Look how outraged everyone was about the so-called royal racists for MONTHS after that interview, when what Oprah had done was draw an incorrect conclusion from Meghan's hinting. I'd love to know how heavily scripted that interview was between the seasoned talk show host and the soap actress!

They would probably have said that they knew about the hierarchy, that they were more than happy to live a life of service without a thought of their own status, but that that they were attacked, undermined and briefed against by Other People.

I am sure everyone has their own opinion on that by now, and whatever is said on threads like this won't change it!

Of course she googled, of course she did her homework. When she arrived in London she was hoping to bag a footballer (Cheryl Cole's ex husband, iirc). All her Christmases came at once when Harry appeared on the horizon as a potential. She went for it, claimed the bag. She brazenly lied in her engagement interview on the BBC when she said she didn't know who he was and all she was interested in was whether he was kind. I mean, if YOU go on a date with someone you've never met before, aren't you going to google them? Would your MAIN concern be about whether he/she is kind? Seriously?

I don't think either of them have the brains or had the time to actually cook up a strategy. That's been their problem all along: they don't think beyond the next step. They also refuse advice. This is why they constantly contradict each other and themselves. They didn't have a vision beyond "freedom", "financial independence", "bigger than W&K" etc. There was a moment, when they first married, where they made W&K look positively dull and staid: there was much more buzz and glamour around this couple. But it blew out, very quickly. They have no substance. She is an influencer who thinks as far as the next gig, the next paycheck, the next thing that will keep her in the public eye (I think harry genuinely wouldn't mind a totally private life). He's stuck in his own royal fug of resentment and misery.

I see Endgame is 139 in the Amazon chart . Oops .

It’s all rather disgusting when you put it like that. The damage it has done to relationships with other nations around the world. Our entire country being cast as vicious racists who drove poor Meghan and her baby out. I have to wonder if she knew how far it would go? I mean she’s doubling down now so make of that what you will.

Oh and as for the lack of input from the Sussex Squad on these threads, I wonder if it’s organised and they’re hoping we come up with some sue-able content for M&H’s team to get their teeth into. Letting us have our heads so to speak 😁

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12822849/omid-scobie-endgame-book-drops-amazon-100-list.html