Royal writer Omid Scobie says he ‘wanted to disappear’ at height of trolling

Omid Scobie has spoken out about receiving abuse for his coverage of the royal family.

The journalist and commentator is one of the UK’s most prominent voices regarding the royal family, with a particular special interest in the lives and perspectives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Soon, he will release his book Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, which takes a deep dive into the institution and its future.

Ahead of the book’s release on Tuesday (28 November), Scobie has spoken out about the difficulties he’s faced as a journalist who often writes sympathetically about Harry and Meghan, while offering critical takes on other aspects of the royal institution.

“I’m very aware that I’m quite disliked in Britain. The way anything about me is said is as if I’m just the absolute worst person,” he explained to the Sunday Times on Sunday (26 November).

Omid Scobie, royal biographer

(BBC Newsnight)

Later, expanding about the trolling he receives – much of the comments referring to his half-Iranian heritage – Scobie said: “I’ve really struggled with it, to be honest. I definitely felt at times like I wanted to just disappear.”

Though Scobie, 42, has been reported as being a trusted contact of the Sussexes, he has frequently denied having a significant relationship with the duchess and former actor.

When asked whether Meghan contributed to the writing of Endgame, Scobie replied: “No, and I’m not her friend,” adding: “I didn’t interview her for this book.”

Still, he admitted to having “mutual friends” with Meghan, which “definitely helps with getting information and breaking details”.

Meghan and Harry, and Omid Scobie

(Getty Images / scobiesnaps/Instagram)

Though he’d been a royal reporter at several publications before Meghan and Harry met in 2016, Scobie took a deeper personal interest in the monarchy due to he and Meghan both being of mixed-race heritage (Scobie is Iranian and white through his mother and father, respectively).

“I was going to work my damn hardest to make sure I was close to every single person in their lives, and become someone that, at the very least, people at the palace feel they can come to when they need to correct a story,” he noted.

Some of the revelations covered in Endgame include Meghan claiming that two members of the royal household speculated about Prince Archie’s skin colour before his birth, as well as naming the senior royal who reportedly convinced the King to evict the Sussexes from Frogmore Cottage.

A royal spokesperson declined to comment when approached by The Independent.