Prince Harry was ‘kept in the dark’ about Queen’s death and there is ‘no way back’ from his fractured relationship with William – who believes his ‘turncoat’ brother has been ‘brainwashed by an army of therapists’, claims Omid Scobie in a bombshell new book

Prince Harry was ‘kept in the dark’ about the Queen’s health in the hours before she died, the royal biographer has claimed.

Omid Scobie, a close friend of the Duke of Sussex, said Harry, 39, and his 42-year-old wife Meghan Markle had “no idea” the royal family was preparing for his grandmother’s death last year.

The allegations come amid a deepening rift between Prince Harry and his family members, including Prince William and King Charles. after explosive attacks on them in his memoir, Spare.

In the endgame, Mr Scobie told how the Sussexes had visited Britain on a series of engagements in September 2022, when the palace announced that Queen Elizabeth had been advised to rest by her doctors.

In an excerpt from the book shared with People, he writes: ‘The next morning, the Sussexes had no idea that Buckingham Palace was already making plans for the Queen’s final hours and the first days of the new era of the monarchy – until the Duke’s phone started ringing. An unknown number. Most of the time he ignored them.’

Meghan told her husband to answer the phone and he accepted the call “just before it stopped,” the author wrote.

He continues: ‘Harry hadn’t spoken much to his father that year, but this was not the time for father-and-son tensions. Charles told him that he and Camilla were about to leave Dumfries House for Balmoral, where Princess Anne was already at the Queen’s side. He told Harry to go to Scotland at once.’

Harry sent a text message to his brother William asking how he and Kate were planning to go to Scotland and if they could travel together, but received no response, Mr Scobie claims.

He was later told that Harry had managed to arrange a flight with his uncles Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.

“It was disturbing to witness,” Scobie claims he was told by a source close to the Sussexes. ‘[Harry] was all alone.’

Mr Scobie claimed that Palace “sources” had informed certain newspapers that Charles had personally shared the news of the Queen’s illness with his son. He quoted a friend of the duke as saying Harry was “devastated” by it.

Harry had a good relationship with his grandmother and told Spare about her death.

In the memoir, he described how he whispered to her that he “hoped she was happy” and would be reunited with Prince Philip, who died a year earlier. He also told her that he admired her for fulfilling her duties to the end.

The prince rushed to Scotland to meet the queen, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, on September 8 last year after Buckingham Palace announced she was seriously ill. However, he failed to reach the estate before she passed away at the age of 96.

In a moving passage, the Duke describes how he learned of the Queen’s death after consulting the BBC news website. On arriving at Balmoral he was greeted by Anne, the Princess, who then led him upstairs to a room where the late Sovereign lay.

He writes: ‘I went on uncertainly and saw her. I lay still and watched her closely for a long time.

‘I whispered that I hoped she was happy and that she was with Grandfather now. I said I admired her for fulfilling her duties to the end. The [Platinum] Jubilee, welcoming the new Prime Minister’.

Mr Scobie covered the Sussexes in his 2020 bestseller Finding Freedom and is now considered the couple’s unofficial mouthpiece.

Promotional material for Endgame suggests it will be as hostile to the remaining members of the royal family as his previous work.

A breathless description on Amazon calls it “a probing examination of the current state of the British monarchy – an unpopular king, a power-hungry heir to the throne, a queen willing to go to any lengths to maintain her image, and a prince who is forced to start a new life after being betrayed by his own family’.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I’ve been told this is bad, very bad. It is unlikely that royal aides will comment, but if there are allegations of racism they will of course be strongly refuted.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex told US TV presenter Oprah Winfrey that when Meghan announced her pregnancy, an unnamed member of the royal family had wondered what skin color their son Archie was likely to have.

The Sussexes repeatedly denied working with Scobie and his co-author Carolyn Durand on Finding Freedom, but Meghan was later forced to admit in the High Court that she had authorized an assistant to secretly brief the couple.

Endgame, published on November 28, is likely to cause further unrest at Buckingham Palace. It is not known whether the Sussexes had any input this time, although the author claims he interviewed family members.

The book, subtitled ‘Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival’, is billed as an ‘explosive’ look at the events surrounding the Queen’s death.

Amazon’s sales pitch states: “The death of Queen Elizabeth II has torn the already broken foundations of the House of Windsor – and dismantled the protective shield around it.”

Scobie claims to have interviewed “current and former palace staff, trusted friends of the Royals and even the family members themselves.”

The Mail on Sunday has learned that the book will appear in a major US magazine, but not in Britain.

It was due to be published in August, but this was postponed to include events surrounding the coronation.

A publishing source in America said: ‘The rumor is this is going to be bomb after bomb. Some even speculate that it could be the name of the person who wondered what color Archie’s skin would be.

‘Everyone knows Omid is the Sussexes’ unofficial mouthpiece, so it’s fair to say there will be huge interest in this book on both sides of the Atlantic.’

Chapter titles include: ‘Shaky Ground: The Queen is Dead, the Monarchy Faces Trouble’, ‘The Fall of Prince Andrew: Scandal, Shame and Silencing Jane Doe’, ‘Race and the Royals: Institutional Bigotry and Denial’, ‘Gloves on’: Prince William, heir to the throne’, and ‘Gloves off: Prince Harry, man on a mission’.

Publisher HarperCollins has previously said the book will ‘get the world talking’, and Scobie has warned it will reveal moments the Royals should be ‘ashamed of’.

Earlier this month, Scobie wrote in detail about Meghan and Harry’s first night together, recounting what appeared to be verbatim conversations between the Sussexes and senior royals.

He remains a favorite mouthpiece of the Sussexes and is often the first to post information about their charity efforts and awards on social media.

This week he again criticized the king and queen for walking a red carpet on bare ground in Kenya during their state visit last week.

On pretty ridiculous. and out of touch.

‘An informed Palace assistant could easily have asked for it to be removed.’

But Scobie was criticized for his comments, including by Kenyan journalist Joseph Wakhungu, who wrote: “I can tell you that this is exactly the way all visiting heads of state and government are treated when they land in Kenya.”

In response to a fan on social media who wrote about Endgame, “I hope it goes further and deeper than Finding Freedom,” Scobie replied, “They’re worlds apart.”