bitchy | Scobie: The palace lied about giving security training to Meghan Markle

In the third part of Prince Harry’s Spare, he writes about the early days of his courtship with then-Meghan Markle, and how little the monarchy did to protect her or even stand up to the racist media coverage. Once Harry proposed to Meghan, he expected the institution to do more to protect her and prepare her for royal life. They did not – they didn’t even give her proper security training, according to Harry. This contradicts some stories in Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s Finding Freedom. Richard Eden at the Daily Mail was gleeful about pointing out those contradictions:

Prince Harry claims that Omid Scobie’s account of how Meghan Markle allegedly underwent unsparing kidnap training is all ‘utter nonsense’ in his scathing memoir. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s friend published a book called Finding Freedom in 2020 which was based, in part, on briefings from a close friend of Meghan. Yet, Harry focuses his sights on Scobie’s account in his book Spare, although he refrains from naming him.

The Duke – or, more accurately, his American ghost-writer JR Moehringer – writes: ‘A bestselling book describes the day Special Forces came to our house, grabbed Meg, put her through several intense days of drills, pushing her into back seats and car boots, speeding away to safe houses.’

Indeed, Scobie’s account claims: ‘The training – which all senior members of the royal family except the Queen have completed at SAS HQ in Hereford – is preparation for all high-risk security scenarios, including kidnapping, hostage situations and terror attacks. Meghan took part in a staged kidnapping, where she was bundled into the back of a car by a “terrorist”, taken to a different location and then “saved” by officers firing fake guns (the kind used in Hollywood filming) for realism’.

Scobie continues: ‘During the mock kidnapping, Meghan was even taught to develop a relationship with the enemy. She was also instructed on how to drive a car while in pursuit. A source said it was an “extremely intense and scary” experience for Meghan, but one that she was grateful to have gone through. Kate didn’t undergo her training until after her wedding to William, but Meghan’s took place earlier as the couple had received an unusually high number of threats.’

According to Harry, this is all ‘utter nonsense’. He writes that Meghan ‘wasn’t given one minute of training. On the contrary, the Palace floated the idea of not giving her any security at all because I was now sixth in line to the throne’.

[From The Daily Mail]

It’s true, that is a discrepancy or a contradiction. The idea that Eden is using this as some kind of unhinged “gotcha” at Scobie misses the f–king point that holy sh-t, they really didn’t care if Meghan lived or died and they didn’t want her to have security. In any case, if we know one thing about Omid Scobie, it’s that he loves nothing more than tea-spilling. After Eden’s column went up, Scobie posted this response:

The story in Finding Freedom about Meghan’s “security training” was first debunked in 2021 during her Mail court case. Came as a surprise to me because it was a Palace official who confirmed it to my co-author and I. But as Harry writes, it‘s “nonsense” he wished was true.

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) January 20, 2023

There were a number of lines fed by certain staff which we didn’t include due to fact check fails. Things to make the institution look better. Seeing the inner-workings of the Palace so close up during that storm was fascinating—an experience I look forward to sharing in ENDGAME.

— Omid Scobie (@scobie) January 20, 2023

Royalist reporters live inside their own conspiracies, alternate realities and asses, so they convinced themselves that Meghan “cowrote” Finding Freedom, or that all of Scobie and Durand’s sources were Meghan and her friends. Scobie is saying no, actually – we were force-fed lies directly from palace officials, lies which made the palace look good. Again, not the “gotcha” Eden was expecting.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.