bitchy | Scobie: The Sussexes will likely ‘retreat’ from the royal soap opera this year

Omid Scobie still has an “in” with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, although who knows if he’s actually talking to people in their orbit at this point, or whether he’s just making educated guesses/assumptions. Scobie was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, in the middle of Prince Harry’s Spare promotional blitz, and he predicted that, following Harry’s book promotion, they’ll take some time away from the spotlight.

Prince Harry and Meghan will retreat from the Royal Family “soap opera” for the rest of the year after a string of bombshell allegations made in Harry’s book, the author of a biography on the couple has said. Omid Scobie, who co-authored Finding Freedom – a biography about the Sussexes which is understood to have been written with their blessing – said he believes the couple will shift their approach in the months ahead as there “isn’t really much else to say.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the journalist, who has been dubbed ‘Meghan’s unofficial spokesperson’ in the past, dismissed the suggestion that the Sussex brand is going to be defined by repeated attacks on the institution. Mr Scobie said he thinks the couple “have to be quite careful right now”, adding there has been a lot of focus on their private life recently and the brand has been “very much about drama” and a “soap opera” that has played out very publicly.

“I think we’re going to see for the rest of this year a couple sort of retreating from a lot of what we’ve seen over the last few months,” he said. “They’ve both shared their sides of the story. Harry… in more ways than we could have ever imagined.

[From The i news]

I kind of hoped that 2023 would be the year of Brand Sussex – not so much Harry and Meghan attacking the Windsors, but rather the Sussexes in brand-building mode, doing more humanitarian work, doing more work with Netflix and maybe Meghan writing another children’s book. I’m quite sure they have other projects in the pipeline, but maybe Scobie is saying that those projects have nothing to do with the royal soap opera.

Speaking of – and I do believe this is connected – Harry apparently told Anderson Cooper that “a partial royal role based overseas” is still “on the table.” That’s curious.

In part of the interview that wasn’t broadcast, Prince Harry teld @andersoncooper the offer of a partial royal role based overseas is still on the table for the U.K. monarchy pending ‘frank discussions that don’t leak out.’

— Max Foster (@MaxFosterCNN) January 9, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Instar.