Scobie: Duchess Sophie’s 2021 Oprah comments were tin-eared & bigoted

While there are many unsettling stories and details in Omid Scobie’s Endgame, there are several parts which are laugh-out-loud funny. The entirety of Chapter 2 is a hoot – it details the fall/winter of discontent in Windsor-ville following QEII’s passing, with screw-up after screw-up involving a king, queen and heir who could not stop tripping over their d–ks at every opportunity. But one of the funniest parts was Scobie casually ending the Duchess of Edinburgh in the length of two paragraphs. Scobie referenced the now-infamous interview Sophie and Edward gave to Camilla Tominey at the Telegraph a couple of months after the Sussexes’ Oprah interview. When the Telegraph reporter pressed them to comment on the interview, Edward said “Oprah who?” and Sophie chimed in with “Yes, what interview?… You know, if you’re not into chat shows, there’s no reason why you should know who she is. Certainly not in this country, anyway.” Here’s what Scobie wrote about that and the Wessexes/Edinburghs:

Omid Scobie has claimed that ‘the comments about the world’s most successful black woman and one of the biggest faces in entertainment made them seem stuffy or tin-eared at best, and casually bigoted at worst. What may seem like a trivial episode by itself, Sophie’s Oprah gaffe is yet another page to add to the history of recent screw ups.’

The Royal author argued that Sophie and Edward’s remarks could also be used as evidence to support the notion that the British monarchy is an “intolerant organisation steeped in bigotry and privilege”.

He went on to claim that Sophie also ‘noticeably’ appeared to ignore Meghan outside Westminster Abbey at the late Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral, as did Kate Middleton and Queen Camilla. According to Scobie, Meghan had to endure ‘snubs and brush-offs’ during her and Prince Harry’s stay, as well as ‘the same old power trips’.

He further claimed that Sophie and Edward very rarely get any press, with their 2023 trip only featuring in the Cayman Compass and Cayman News Service. During a conversation with a ‘top Fleet Street Editor’ about Sophie and Edward, Scobie says he was told: “I’d have more luck putting my mum on the front page.” Other claims revolved around Sophie and Edward’s March 2022 trip to Antigua, during which they apparently ‘smiled’ and ‘waved’ to audiences who were ‘demanding apologies and reparatory justice’ for Britain’s colonial past in the Caribbean.

[From The Daily Mail & The Mirror]

The Oprah Who episode truly did not get enough attention at the time, likely because Sophie and Edward are so utterly unmemorable, uncharismatic and un-noteworthy. But that whole passage from the 2021 interview was truly awful. Sophie really thought she could look down her nose at one of the most famous Black women in the world, the world’s first Black woman billionaire, etc. Sophie who? Also, “I’d have more luck putting my mum on the front page” is so savage. I’m still chuckling.

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