A brand new explosive royal book that asserts the monarchy is in a "fight for survival" has certainly created shockwaves with its sensational claims.
And it seems no royals are immune from criticism in the book Endgame by Omid Scoboe, with bombshell allegations against the likes of King Charles, Prince William, the Princess of Wales and even Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh. Neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace have commented on the claims, and here are the allegations most likely to enrage members of the Firm...
King Charles
One royal who comes in for some of the fiercest criticism is King Charles and in an assessment of his reign so far, the book claims: "Circumvented by Netflix, overshadowed by his younger son, humbled by the Government and the institutional system, and dragged down by his own poor judgment and that of his wayward brother, Charles often stumbled through his first 100 days as King, encountering one obstacle after another."
It also alleges the King missed an opportunity to let "bygones be bygones" and begin a new chapter in his relationship with Harry, when the duke contacted him after the release of his memoir Spare which made a series of damning allegations about the royal family. Endgame quotes a source as saying Charles was “cold and brief rather than open to proper dialogue” when he spoke to his son.
Meanwhile, the book recounts what happened on the fateful day the late Queen died and claims that Harry was kept in the dark about his grandmother's condition before Charles betrayed the late Queen's wishes. It says the prince was eventually informed of his grandmother's ailing condition and managed to board a flight to Scotland. The late Queen's death was announced to the world just after 6.30pm, not long before Harry's plane landed in Aberdeen.
The book says the late monarch "would have wanted Harry to know that she had died before everyone else did". When Elizabeth II died on September 8 last year, it was initially reported that Charles personally called Harry to tell him the news about his late grandmother. However, in his bombshell memoir Spare, Harry contests this and says that he found out about her passing by reading about it on the BBC News website once he disembarked a flight to Aberdeen on his way to travelling to Balmoral, where the late Queen died.
It adds: "'Harry was crushed,' said a friend of the duke. 'His relationship with the Queen was everything to him. She would have wanted him to know before it went out to the world. They could have waited just a little longer, it would have been nothing in the grand scheme of things, but no one respected that at all'."
Prince William
Another royal who comes in for several blatant swipes is Prince William, with the book claiming to expose what he is like behind closed doors. It claims the Prince of Wales has inherited some of his father's "spikey" anger, making him "difficult to handle".
In private, "hotheaded" William can let his emotions get the better of him, Scobie says, in a way that is reminiscent of his father King Charles, who was seen last year during the mourning period of Queen Elizabeth getting het up over a leaking pen. Grieving a parent is a time of unusually high emotional duress for anyone, but the writer notes that the Prince of Wales shares his father's volatility rather than the late Queen's ability to keep a lid on her emotional state.
However, allies have rallied to defend William, dismissing Omid Scobie's new title Endgame and accusing him of "peddling" conspiracy theories "dressed up as fact".
Princess of Wales
Meanwhile, Endgame paints an unflattering picture of a Kate describing her as a royal who works 'part time' and has earned herself the nickname 'Katie Keen' because the palace press office hides her reportedly lower workload by saying she is "keen to learn". Implying that she does less than other senior working royals, Mr Scobie say says her position is one other parents could "only dream of", and insists she "does not plan to increase her workload for 10-15 years" until her children are grown.
He writes: "The late Queen, too, would take off blocks of time throughout the year to recharge, but she was also known to carry out at least three hundred engagements annually. Sources said Kate remains 'laser focused' on her duty to the family first, and then the Crown.
"Where other senior royals are out and about several times a week, meeting people across the length and breadth of the country, Kate has long maintained a smaller work schedule that helped her check off the required royal boxes while saving time for her roles as a mother and a wife." Scobie also brands the future queen 'cold' and claims that despite being an advocate for better mental health, Kate "ignored Meghan's cries for help" and had "no interest in being friends with her sister-in-law".
Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh
Elsewhere in the book Sophie and husband Prince Edward are accused by Mr Scobie of writing "yet another page to add to the history of recent screw ups".
He was referencing remarks made by the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh following Harry and Meghan's explosive Oprah interview. Mere days after the tell all chatt, Edward and Sophie shared a laugh about the bombshell interview with The Telegraph, jokingly replying, 'Oprah who?' and 'what interview?' when asked whether or not they'd tuned in.
In Endgame, Mr Scobie writes that these "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." He continues: "Sophie's Oprah gaffe is yet another page to add to the history of recent screw ups."
The Royal author argues 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".