Harry & Meghan served as a wakeup call of sorts for King Charles III. According to journalist Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame, the 2022 Netflix docuseries detailing the king’s son and daughter-in-law’s romance and exit from royal life prompted a “brief” moment of reflection. However, the king’s sympathy for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “soon disappeared” and gave way to feelings of anger.
Harry & Meghan debuted on Dec. 8, 2022, with Part I consisting of the first three episodes. In it, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex talked about the early days of their romance, including meeting in London, England, in July 2016 and getting to know each other in Botswana.
In the lead-up to the premiere, King Charles requested a “wall of silence,” according to the book (via UsWeekly). Scobie wrote that the now-75-year-old monarch didn’t want to hear others bashing or speaking ill of Harry in front of him.
“The king was genuinely sad about the entire situation,” a source told Scobie three months after Harry & Meghan premiered. “He was angry but didn’t want people to speak ill of his son in front of him, either.”
They continued, calling it a short time of reflection for King Charles when he acknowledged the poor state of his and Harry’s relationship. “It was a brief moment where he paused and realized how bad things had become,” the source said.
A week later, Part II — episodes 4-6 — premiered. This time, there were no joyful clips from Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding, but serious accusations and claims made against the British royal family.
King Charles’s feelings quickly changed when ‘Harry & Meghan’ overshadowed his work
Any feelings of sympathy King Charles felt toward Harry and Meghan “soon disappeared.” Per Endgame, “hubbub” over the docuseries dominated the press, while the king’s sizeable charitable donation went largely unnoticed by the media.
At the time, King Charles donated upwards of $1 million to a nonprofit organization, The Felix Project. However, he received very little media coverage as headlines surrounding Harry & Meghan continued.
“[The show] took the wind out of everyone’s sails,” a source told Scobie. They continued, saying King Charles had been “doing his damnedest best” to get some positive press after taking the throne upon Queen Elizabeth II’s death three months earlier. But because of the Netflix docuseries, he found himself being “eclipsed” at “every turn.”
“No one [was] watching” what the king did at the time because of Harry & Meghan, they went on. As a result, King Charles “went from not wanting anyone to talk about his son to openly criticizing ‘that fool,’” another insider claimed.
King Charles is far from the only royal discussed in Endgame. Beyond the monarch’s reaction to Harry & Meghan, Scobie included claims on all sorts of recent royal family events.
Among them is the day the queen died and how Harry and his team had to “operate in the dark” traveling to Balmoral. One passage details the “cheap shot” King Charles took at Harry and Meghan when he revoked their use of Frogmore Cottage.
Others include a Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh gaffe, how Prince William sees Harry as a “defector,” and Kate Middleton’s physical reaction to any mention of Meghan.
Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival dropped on Nov. 28, 2023.
