Why a Meghan Markle memoir would be a bad idea

Meghan Markle’s “much more curated take” on her image means any memoir she might write would be less interesting than Prince Harry’s, royal author Omid Scobie told Newsweek.

Scobie’s new book Endgame re-ignited the frenzied debate around comments Meghan said a royal family member made about her unborn child’s skin tone.

The Dutch version named King Charles III as having made the remark in a conversation for which Kate Middleton was present, however, the exact details of what really happened remain far from clear.

It is precisely the kind of issue that could be cleared up in a memoir but, before the book was released and the new scandal blew up, Scobie suggested Meghan might not be up to the level of candor required to produce one.

Speaking without reference to the current discussion, he told Newsweek: “To gain the respect of the reader, you have to be completely human in your portrayal, transparent in your portrayal of yourself.

“It has to be candid, it has to be embarrassing in places, it has to be all of these things to be the true portrait of a human being rather than the varnished image of a public figure that wants to be seen in a certain way.

“And it’s why I think his [Harry’s] book would always be more interesting than say if Megan wrote a memoir, because I think Megan has a much more curated take on what her image is and how it should be. Harry has always been a very candid, candid man.”

Harry’s book Spare hit shelves in January 2023 and became the fastest selling non-fiction book in history, shifting 1.43 million copies on its first day, including pre-orders.

However, it also sparked a wave of comedy roasts and a sharp decline in Harry and Meghan’s U.S. popularity.

Chris Rock said on stage: “Sometimes it’s just some in-law s***. Because she’s complaining, I’m like, ‘What the f*** is she talking about?’ ‘Oprah, they’re so racist, they wanted to know how brown the baby was going to be.’

“I’m like, ‘That’s not racist,’ cause’ even Black people want to know how brown the baby gonna be. S***! We check behind their ears!”

Some experts also suggested Spare and the couple’s Netflix show Harry & Meghan had done too little to acknowledge the couple’s own past mistakes.

Scobie told Newsweek: “Let me ask you this, how would you write about your wife and your experiences together in the public domain? His perspective is always going to be different, you know?

“He’s writing about someone that he wanted to kind of defend and protect to the death. And so his descriptions of those experiences are always going to come from that very place.

“I think anyone picking up spare and expecting it to be the kind of balanced, unbiased take on this should find a good piece of journalism because that’s not what you get in a memoir.

“It just wasn’t a surprise to me. It’s like when they sat down for Oprah, we were never gonna hear anyone else’s side of the story other than their own, and it’s the same the same with Spare.”

Meghan told Oprah Winfrey an unnamed royal had expressed “concern” about how dark her unborn child’s skin might be and linked it to discussions about the possibility of denying her children titles and police protection.

However, Harry suggested neither of them felt the comments made were racist and hinted at the possibility it may have been curiosity rather than concern during interviews in January 2023.

Endgame also suggested Charles wrote Meghan a letter after her Oprah interview stating that there was no ill will or malice intended in the comment. The royals are yet to indicate whether the names published are accurate.