Kensington Palace convinced ITV to remove an Omid Scobie claim about William

Diana's 60th birthday

As we discussed, there was a dumb ITV documentary which aired Sunday night. The doc was called Harry and William: What Went Wrong? Can’t wait for Agatha Christie’s The Case of Incandescent Baldemort. The Mail on Sunday had a preview of the doc and they quoted Omid Scobie discussing (on-camera) the fact that Kensington Palace briefed against Prince Harry and his mental state in the immediate wake of the ITV African tour documentary in 2019. Once the this new What Went Wrong doc aired on Sunday, it looked like Scobie’s comments were heavily edited though. Which caused the Daily Mail to question whether Kensington Palace leaned heavily on ITV to remove Scobie’s accurate assessment.

Claims that Prince William and his staff planted a story about Prince Harry’s mental health were cut from a documentary at the 11th hour yesterday after warnings that they were defamatory. Omid Scobie, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s biographer, had suggested palace sources briefed newspapers over concerns about Harry’s state of mind following an interview he gave.

Harry had spoken with journalist Tom Bradby in 2019 where he admitted to a rift with his brother for the first time. And Mr Scobie has now said a negative spin was subsequently put on that interview by palace sources.

Kensington Palace is believed to have contacted the producers in relation to a ‘number’ of details. One of these was a clear rebuttal of Mr Scobie’s suggestion that William had expressed a ‘concern’ about his brother’s mental health, which the author had no evidence to support.

William is a dedicated campaigner on mental health issues and would take a dim view of any suggestion that he or his staff would brief about that.

It is understood that after ‘carefully considering’ the palace’s request, ITV chose to remove any reference to mental health from the sequence, although they chose to keep in Mr Scobie’s comment about an alleged briefing from Kensington Palace relating to Harry.

In the original version of last night’s documentary, he suggested that palace sources briefed the Press about Harry’s mental health in the aftermath of the Bradby programme – possibly on William’s orders – a situation he described as ‘ugly’. But Kensington Palace warned ITV that such a suggestion, if it formed part of the ITV programme, would be defamatory in that it was substantially untrue.

At the time of the Bradby interview, royal insiders made clear they felt it was an inappropriate line of questioning by the journalist and were at pains to point out that William had been distressed and concerned to see his brother so upset. But there was absolutely no mention of his mental health. William has done a lot of mental health campaigning, and helped to set up the royal Heads Together project to promote better understanding on the issue.

[From The Daily Mail]

It’s complicated, but what I gather (having not seen this fakakta documentary) is that the Mail on Sunday somehow got their hands on the Scobie clip at least a day before the doc was set to air and they ran that teaser exclusive about Scobie’s tea/assessment. Then after the MoS gave Kensington Palace a heads-up about Scobie’s comments, KP threw a hissy fit to ITV producers and they did a quick edit before the doc aired on Sunday. I believe that’s the timeline for what happened.

As for the idea that William, “the mental health campaigner,” is somehow “above” leaking against his brother and sister-in-law and using shady language to insinuate that they are mentally fragile and weak… he literally did just that. We all know he did it. Omid Scobie knows he did it. Harry knows he did it. Meghan knows he did it. All of the royal reporters know he did it. William and Kate were both hellbent on “putting the Sussexes in their place,” to the point of wall-to-wall smears and orchestrated character assassinations. Of course they briefed against H&M’s mental health too.

Diana's 60th birthday

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98 Responses to “Kensington Palace convinced ITV to remove an Omid Scobie claim about William”

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  1. DellT says:

    FYI Im team Sussex till I die, but KP acted with good reason. Its a defamatory and unproved claim. If the DM said such a thing about Meghan or Harry, they would have been sued, and Omid is lucky he wasnt sued. Im confident William’s team DID leak such stories, anything to reduce Harry’s currency value, but there is no substantive proof.

    • Curious says:

      so is everything they said about Meghan and Harry. but i don’t see the royal family stopping it from being in the press. william is working behind the scenes,Jason knows this. Jason through William tried to crucify Meghan.and came clean at the last min. (cause meghan had receipts ) its by William orders,he worked for William. when Jason thought he might get jail time,he came clean, then he got fired, but it was said he resign. cause he stopped playing William games,when his own life was at risk.

      • DellT says:

        I agree with all you have said. Omid is lucky KP hasnt sued him or otherwise.

      • Yvette says:

        @Curious … Agreed. I came here to say the same thing. All those horrid ‘Palace sourced’ leaks and lies about Meghan in 2018 were defamatory as well, but Kennington Palace allowed them to be printed and broadcast by the British media. The Kennington Palace aides wouldn’t respond with a denial and wouldn’t let Harry or Meghan respond with a denial, either because … “Don’t complain, never explain.”

        Except, Kate and William both ‘complain and explain’ whenever a story is printed that they don’t like. Kate had a public hissy fit in print over the “Tatler” article about how ‘Keen CEO Kate felt overwhelmed by work.’ And William threatened to sue over a suggestion that he was pruning a Rose bush.

        Kate and William allowed those stories to be published, starting with “Meghan made Kate cry!” because they wanted people to hate Meghan and love Kate, and let’s be real here, they wanted people to hate Harry as well. The majority of what was printed wasn’t true, and all it would have taken to stop it from being printed over and over several times a day was Kensington Palace doing exactly what they did for William–go to the Editors and say “if you don’t have any written or reliable ‘sourced’ proof to back it up, don’t print it or else”–but Kensington Palace didn’t want to stop it.

        So Sunday night everything in that documentary was negative stuff about Harry and Meghan because that’s okay with everyone at Kensington Palace.

      • Sunday says:

        I just don’t understand how this is defamatory. Every tabloid in the kingdom has written about Harry’s mental health using palace sources, palace insiders, royal aides, friends close to william, etc. So, they’re allowed to print it, but if someone references those quotes, THAT crosses the line? Where are all these stories and quotes supposed to come from if not from inside the palace?

        I really don’t get it. Omid did not say anything that the tabloids haven’t either insinuated or stated flat-out. All this focus on Omid is completely manufactured outrage to obscure the real issue, which is that KP successfully got ITV to manipulate their content because KP did not want that statement repeated on primetime tv, not that Omid doesn’t have “proof.” Just open the Daily Fail with your eyes closed and point to a random article and it will have a “source close to william” included.

        Also, just have to point out that the RRs are obviously desperate to start talking, because all this outrage over Omid just allows them to print wholecloth the exact claims that were removed from ITV. They’re concern-trolling KP, using Omid as a scape goat so they can expose the story while feigning innocence to their KP handlers.

      • Nic919 says:

        The Sun and the DM both published articles after the South Africa interview saying that William thought Harry was mentally fragile. That was in October 2019. So where is the lawsuit against them if it is defamation? Why is it only when Omid says the palace was briefing against Harry’s mental health do they pretend it’s defamatory?

    • Merricat says:

      And all the garbage accusations leveled at the Sussexes, were they not defamatory and unproven? But they were told they weren’t allowed to interfere with the press–unlike what has just happened here. Spare me.

      • Lila says:

        Exactly. The same reporters talking about “Omid doesn’t have proof” were the ones claiming Harry and Meghan were interfering with free speech.

      • DellT says:

        Im not fond of whataboutism. I am not making the argument that Harry and Meghan havent been slandered. They have, and they have sued ppl for it and won. What Im saying is, Omid put himself in a precarious situation by making such an impactful statement without PRODUCING proof. Thats my point in its entirety.

      • True says:

        How do you know he doesn’t have proof?

      • Jeremy says:

        But if they were actually defamatory then why don’t they sue? Megan and Harry have sent cease and desist letters to newspapers who didn’t change their story. If the claims are defamatory and they have the money to sue then why don’t they

      • Becks1 says:

        The “whataboutism” is because this proves Meghan’s point – KP is willing to act to protect others, not just her.

        Also who says Omid doesn’t have proof? I’m sure he’s one of the ones that KP was trying to brief.

      • DellT says:

        @becks1

        KP was never going to defend Meghan. Shes half black, was too popular, and her very existence could have usurped power from those in the monarchy who held it for so long. Its a racist institution and I never once thought they would defend her, ad no one else should have been under the impression that they would. Harry had to intervene with his letter to the media about racist attacks against Meghan. Seeing her as too popular, KP couldnt wait to turn the UK masses against her, which they effectively have.

      • Becks1 says:

        @DellT – okay, but it still proves her point. Omid says one thing in a documentary that isn’t flattering towards William and KP gets it pulled? Every RR and Cambridge defender has spent the past several years insisting the palace is “powerless” to stop negative stories running. We all knew that wasn’t true and here’s yet another example.

        It’s not about what was said, its about who looks bad as a result. So let’s not act like KP is mad bc Omid doesn’t have proof. They’re mad because he has the proof.

    • Jais says:

      Havnt seen the documentary but am curious if there is anything defamatory that was said about Meghan and Harry but was not pulled.

      • Jan says:

        Of course it was defamatory about Meghan but because she is a black, Johnny-come-lately is asking why she don’t sue.

    • tolly says:

      The Times reporter who published the “bullying” claims before the Oprah interview admitted after the interview the KP staffers were also trying to leak info about Meghan’s mental health crisis.

      • taris says:

        valentine low … he’s a real problem.
        received a legal warning from meghan last week about yet another defamatory story he’s run on her.

      • betsyh says:

        taris: I did not hear of this. I tried to google it, but couldn’t find anything. Could you tell me why Low received a legal warning last week?

      • Nic919 says:

        There was a reference added at the top of the Low article last week that a legal complaint had been made about it.

      • taris says:

        @betsyh the legal warning was about an article he wrote in the times claiming that meghan was some kind of diva with UN Women years ago when she was their ambassador.
        it was adapted from lacey’s upcoming updated book.

      • betsyh says:

        Thanks taris! I was searching the old royal articles for “Low” and couldn’t find this.

      • betsyh says:

        Well I researched this, and it’s about the stupidest thing I’ve ever read. Why would she attend the event in Fiji in the first place if she was reportedly “upset with UN
        Women.” SMH

    • True says:

      Most everything RRs say is fiction. Only reason KP ever gets upset-Tatler, etc…is when there is actually some truth to it.

      Omid is also typically measured in tv docs and interviews. He said something now he can’t prove……I doubt that.

      Omid is saying what everyone RR knows. Said by others. Problem
      is he is saying it and not one of the palace lackeys.

      • Jaded says:

        Don’t forget, Omid is a person of colour so he would be treated with the same racist disdain by KP and the RRs that Meghan is. He’s even publicly mentioned the racism he’s endured in his career.

    • Chelsea says:

      The DailyMail DID run such a claim about Williwm. Within days of the BBC leak in October saying that Palace aides informed them that William thought Harry was fragile the DailtMail also ran a story saying that palace aides informed them that William called Harry after the doc because he was “concerned” for his mental health. The Sun also ran a front page with similar claims so how can they sue Omid over something we all saw. There were multiple stories placed in the British press in late October 2019 claiming to be from KP sources regarding William’s feelings about Harry’s mental health none of which were pushed back on by KP on or off the record at the time. If they sue Omid they’d have to bring all the journalists who wrote those stories to explain where tf they got them from.

      • (TheOG) Jan90067 says:

        THIS Chelsea! I remember these same articles, with TOBB’s “concern” about Harry’s “fragility/mental health”. Let’s get those R🐀s in and make them produce *their* “proof” ( preferably in a court of law, under penalty of perjury).

    • Woke says:

      That’s the the thing though the double standards we all know the documentary was full of defamatory stories about the Sussexes but did that stopped ITV from airing it ? Nope, but because KP threw a tantrum all of sudden they want to act virtious. We all know they woudn’t have sued it’s just a demonstration of power.

    • Gigi says:

      Except that BBC put out this same story back in October 2019 after H&M’s South Africa documentary, why didn’t KP asked for that story to be removed as well?

      BBC Newsbeat/Oct 21, 2019: “A KP source tells BBC that Prince William thinks Harry is in ‘a fragile place’.”

    • BABSORIG says:

      @Delt, I’m not sure what you going on about. “Harry and Meghan would have sued if anything untrue was said about them with no proof”? Are you serious with this? Like, are you insinuating that because the Sussexes have never sued, so everything printed about them or said in a lot of documentaries about them is true? Please do tell us, how many times have the Sussexes sued the British tabloids (or any news media for that matter) and/or 60 minutes Australia etc for the defamatory stories printed or aired about them? Just asking for those in the back.

      • DellT says:

        Youve completely missed my point. The accusation Omid made is strong. Many accusations have been made about Meghan and Harry, but they usually only sue when the thing said is egregious. Im simply saying Omid made a very strong statement without producing proof, and that is surprising. The DM does the same to Harry and Meghan all the time, making nonsense statements, without proof. They make their living off speculation and innuendo, and dumb ppl,

      • Maria says:

        It’s strong because it’s true and if it weren’t KP would have brought out the lawyers. Methinks they haven’t since they can’t afford another baseless suit after the bullying allegations that they are trying to make disappear.

      • BABSORIG says:

        @Delt, you’ve said quite a bit, but still haven’t not told us when Meghan and Harry ever sued the tabloids for the slanderous stories and documentaries that have been published and aired anout them for the last 4 years. You can’t name a time they sued because they’ve never sued.

    • Lila says:

      You’re saying Meghan has sued for slender and that’s false. She sued MoS because they published her letter.

    • Lili says:

      I’m not sure but i dont think the royal family can be sued, i think that is why they are also hiding Andrew , because it sets a precedent and opens them up to all sorts . some one posted on twitter Where william said he was worried about his brother.

    • Mich says:

      Yeah. I’m pretty sure the media outlets that ran with the original story about M & H’s mental health know exactly where the story came from (hint: from Jason).

    • Becks1 says:

      Also, like others have said – this line – that KP has briefed against Harry – has been repeated by RRs for the past two years without any legal threats by KP. I think KP is ticked that Omid was saying it because they know that he’s considered more credible than someone like Dan Wootton, especially in the US media.

      This isnt about what was specifically said, it’s about who said it and where (i.e. in a documentary where it creates a soundbyte.)

      Let’s not act like KP is taking the high road here.

      • Jais says:

        That’s a good point, becks1, about the fact that it’s from omid being the issue. I wonder if ITV even went back to omid and asked for evidence before they cut that part. Technically, he could’ve pointed out what’s already been said in the tabloids from other sources as evidence.

      • BothSidesNow says:

        As we all know KP has never taken the high road. And you are right Becks1, with regards to Omid being seen as a much more powerful voice as opposed to the other idiots running around flapping their gums. Omid is a credible source one of which KP does not want having any platform to speak from!

        In regards to heading a metal health initiative, TOB is the least likely candidate to ever be the spokesman for🙄

    • cassandra says:

      This is why I don’t enjoy these threads as much as I used to. @DellT’s comment is a valid discussion point and they certainly aren’t condoning anything done by KP or the press.

      Frankly, even without KP’s involvement, this documentary was created for and aired by a British television station. It was always going to favor the establishment.

      • Becks1 says:

        Except that the comment wasn’t accurate. It’s about an iTV documentary and says that “if the DM said such a thing about Harry or Meghan, they would have been sued.” But what about the actual iTV documentary in question, that is not very complimentary about Meghan? They haven’t sued over that . And the DM has said some horrible things about Meghan over the past four years and the Sussexes haven’t sued.

        I also think its more troubling that William was able to get the segment pulled rather than have it air and then sue, if he was so inclined.

      • taris says:

        @cassandra i think what people on here are saying is that if omid can theoretically be sued for allegedly saying something “without evidence”, surely there’d be a slippery slope from him to the papers that reported much the same thing (about william being “concerned” about harry) to the palace sources and finally to william himself?

        omid wouldn’t just run his mouth about something like this because he’s not a tabloid, fan-fiction royal reporter. whatever he says, i think he probably has it on good authority.

        PLUS everybody’s missing the crucial point here, which is that omid said that PRINCE HARRY believes his brother was briefing on him. the story isn’t about what william is thinking or doing or whatever. it’s about HARRY and HIS suspicions (which don’t necessarily have to be true, but we all know they are).

      • taris says:

        one more thing: the action taken by KP isn’t really because omid lied (he didn’t); it’s because it makes william look bad.
        that’s why the daily mail goes to lengths to tout his “work” on mental health.

    • Lizzie says:

      Never complain eh?

    • PEARL GREY says:

      There is a clear pattern of the Cambridges making big moves to counter against negative stories about themselves while others are told they are trying to “censor the press” if they do the same. Harry and Meghan especially have had an untold amount of libellous, defamatory and slanderous claims made against them in national newspapers, on TV shows and on social media, ranging from being publicly accused of elder abuse in “bullying and blackmailing” the Queen, marital abuse in coercive control, racism for not putting enough white people on a magazine cover, gender bias for not putting any men on said magazine cover, parental abandonment, making family members cry, feuds, misuse of charity funds, you name it, they’ve been publicly accused of it by prominent media figures on national and international platforms. And even despite all of that, Harry and Meghan have only turned to legal action on a tiny fraction of the avalanche of false claims made against them over the last 4 and a half years, while receiving yet more criticism for “suing too much”, causing a fuss and interfering with the freedom of the press. Yet William (and Kate) have shown time and time again that they are the ones that seek to control the media. Stories with the faintest aroma of criticism are hastily pulled on their say-so, articles are heavily edited with entire passages removed (Tatler *cough* The Sun *cough*), tweets are deleted, official palace statements of denial are issued within hours of a negative story (remember how quickly the “I can put my arm around my brother any more” story was shut down?), and now documentaries are being edited hours before airing to suit William. It has already long been claimed that comments about Harry’s mental health in the wake of the South Africa documentary were coming from Camp Incandescent, and it’s obvious given how quickly the narrative turned to “fragile Harry” after he bravely spoke openly about his refusal to let Meghan fall victim to the same game that led to his mother’s death. Harry dropped a bomb with his words (“If you knew what I know”), and made it clear that while he loves his brother, they are on different paths. Harry’s candidness and the outpouring of support for Meghan after the programme aired had #WeLoveYouMeghan trending worldwide on Twitter and made headlines around the world. Then suddenly an effort to paint Harry as unstable and William as the concerned brother who can’t help him anymore emerged right after. We all know it was William, the rota know it was William and this latest coverup by yanking Omid’s comments is just more Cambridge cleanup.

    • taris says:

      i think we can all agree making ‘unfounded’ claims about *anyone* is not right. but, as everybody else on here has pointed out, where is that line of defense when it comes to harry and meghan?

      i mean, if constantly making shit up about people (say, harry and meghan) that are demonstrably false, and reporting that shit like it’s news was such the egregious crime that KP seems to be implying it is, would outlets like the daily mail even still be in business?

    • notasugarhere says:

      See Chelsea’s comment. The info about William briefing against Harry’s mental health is already on record and not denied by KP.

    • Margaret says:

      Why is proof required for negative reports about the shameful twosome, but no proof is required about negative sussex reports?. That has bothered me, please explain.

    • Fawsia says:

      Girl, William himself on record told a Sunday Time editor and at that time they reported as a friend of William, but later we cake to know it was William himself. Furthermore, Karen English wrOre at the time and all of the rota were saying William is concern about his brother’s fragile mental health!

    • Esma says:

      You don’t know that Omid doesn’t have substantial proof to back his claims. He doesn’t strike me as the type to run his mouth like this unless he knew he could protect his back with solid information.

    • taris says:

      @DellT omid didn’t really say anything that wasn’t – then and now – common knowledge, or at least widely reported. the times et al had william’s “concerns” about harry plastered on their front pages back in 2019.
      so, if omid can/should be sued for defamation, why can’t all these other papers be sued too? for this and for soo many other things?

    • pottymouth pup says:

      deleted

  2. ModeratelyWealthy says:

    Either Dan Wooton or Richard Kay said KP was briefing against the Sussexes and a journalist is on record about William´s quote on not putting his arms around Harry or such other nonsense. This is to say, is not like Omid is the only one saying that.

    The problem seems to be that KP did not tell Omid to say it, so that is why they killed the story.

    • Lauren says:

      DW is on video saying that KP was briefing the rota about the Sussexes. He should know as he was personally briefed by an ex-aide of the Keens.

      • Lila says:

        I can think of at least four royal reporters that have admitted to KP briefing against the Sussexes. There’s also that reporter that’s not part of the rota that outright said William went to the press to brief against his brother. They’ve all said it before.

      • Becks1 says:

        @ModeratelyWealthy et al – exactly. We’ve heard similar things from other RRs for years now. The point here is that it’s Omid saying it, AND he is specifically tying it to Harry’s claims of mental health struggles, so it makes William look really bad. It’s not anything new, everyone from Dan Wootton to Max Foster (I think, maybe keir simmons) has said similar things for years, but the context here is the problem for KP.

        i do kind of love though that the DM wrote a story about the segment being removed while repeating what was in the segment. It reminds me of when KP complained about the Tatler article and the DM (I think Emily Andrews, might have been Robert Kay) wrote an article detailing every single complaint KP had with the article and basically repeating the article verbatim.

      • Lauren says:

        Emily Andrews was also the one to break the story about the NY baby shower for Meghan, only that the baby shower still hadn’t happened. She was given the wrong date by KP as she herself wrote to someone on Twitter. So many roaches were being briefed by multiple sources from KP.

  3. girl_ninja says:

    Proof everyday that the RBF are in cahoots with the UK media. Grimy family.

    • Pao says:

      Its shady tho that the dm decided to write this article. KP clearly didn’t want this claim out there. But the dm writing this article (tho heavily biased in favor of KP) is them basically saying “its not true but its true “. Because if kp was a 100% successful omids comment would have been scrapped and then never mentioned again. As if it doesn’t exist.

      • Nic919 says:

        I agree with you here. The fact that the DM is writing about ITV being forced to edit some of Omid’s comments suggests that they are not happy about being strong-armed by KP over weak claims of defamation.

        If they were really worried about the comments being defamatory they would not have done this story, as their silence on stories about affairs involving William has demonstrated.

      • Pao says:

        @nic919: its about getting this narrative out there. The DM itself has written countless of articles about meghan, harry and william claiming sources from williams camp gave them the info. Robert Lacey wrote his added “bullying” chapter claiming sources from williams camp.

        The DM knows where the bodies are burried and when the time comes to turn on william this will be there to tell their readers “see these accusations have been going around for a while”, without looking guilty themselves.

    • taris says:

      there may be an invisible contract but sometimes the media will do their own thing, even if it means throwing the royal family under the bus. the tabloids, especially, need to be fed red meat constantly, or they get restless.
      they owe their loyalty to noone.

  4. Jay says:

    Couldn’t this move by KP actually draw even more attention to Scobie’s comments? That tends to be the way they do things.

    • DellT says:

      Nah. This is yesterday’s news. This blew up mildly last week, and the DM was all over it. Ppl are now more interested in the state of William and Kate’s marriage, and the confusion around her being exposed to COVID, which I believe to be a disingenious fairy tale.

  5. Chelsea says:

    This has to be one of the most extreme examples of gaslighting I’ve ever seen. Not only did the BBC run their story in October 2019 claiming KP told them that William was worried about “fragile” Harry, the Daily Mail ran a story claiming KP told them that William called Harry because he was so “worried” about his mental health and the Sun ran a full freaking front page on the BBC story. If “mental health campaigner” William cares so much about the idea that his team would brief about his brother’s mental health why didnt he say something back then? And why has he let stories run in the last two weeks stating that members of KP called Harry and Meghan “damaged goods”? And why was nothing done when Valentine Low admitted on the radio in March that he was told about Meghan going to HR about her mental health in the summer on 2019 yet he made Harry sign on to a statement in January 2020 dismissing claims in the Times that William wss a bully? Just trash. A terrible trash human being.

    I also think this is more of William getting involved where he shouldn’t in feuds with ITV after the previous dumb leak of him cutting off Tom Bradby for still supporting Harry. He should quit while he’s behind.

  6. MsIam says:

    The things Robert Lacey said about Meghan that were attributed to William a couple of weeks ago were horrible, but not a word of denial from KP about that. Is this your future, future king UK? Yikes! I guess since Omid is not on the “approved official KP leaker list” they are going after him.

    • And where is Lacey’s proof that any of what he says was truly said to him. Just like Omid and the rest of the media he says “sources, aides, friends of” WILLIAM. Why isn’t it demanded that he also must reveal his sources? Yet no one has once questioned the legitimacy of his comments. He has repeatedly said them on air as well. Notice how any time any of them mention Scobie or his reporting they always denote him as ‘a personal friend or spokesman for’ the Sussexes? I don’t believe Scobie is a personal friend and I don’t believe he is their spokesman. They have an official named spokesperson. This is about making Scobie out as an ENEMY of their 100% rabid, racist, biased BS when it comes to the Sussexes. I think Scobie (1) generally likes and admires both Meghan and Harry and (2) tries to report as accurately as he can. It’s not surprising that this is considered as traitorous by those who have drunk the Firm’s kool-aid. I wonder if Scobie’s statement would have been pulled if it had come out of Lacey’s mouth? As proven by ITV allowing all the other — unproven— comments to stand in the documentary, this is about William deciding to lean hard on ITV. Why weren’t the Sussexes given the opportunity by ITV to demand other, equally unproven comments about them be pulled as well? Why? Because if ITV had applied the same ruling they did to Scobie’s comments to the rest of this program, they would have had 60 minutes of dead airspace. ITV, the BBC have also signed on to the trashing of the Sussexes and have no journalistic integrity. If they had any, they would demand the same proof of themselves and the 🐀Rota, et al., that they demand of anyone who dares to speak realistically about the Sussexes trashing by themselves and the Firm.

  7. Catherine says:

    After the SA doc; several outlets ran the the story about William commenting on Harry’s mental health. If it was such a defamatory baseless claim KP/William should have gone after the tabloids. But they were clearly doing what he wanted. He wanted to undermine the truth by implying Harry was unstable. The same thing happened in Jan 2020 when the Sussexes announced they were leaving. As for ITV. They have proven themselves to be easily influenced when it comes to the BRF and other media. They removed the headlines from the Oprah doc because the Mail was angry. It was ridiculous.

    • Pao says:

      It should concern britain as a whole that the media isn’t an independent functioning thing but instead does the bidding of several institutions

  8. Nic919 says:

    Richard Palmer, Emily Andrews and even Dan Wootton have said that the family was briefing against the Sussexes and have been for a while. Omid is not one to make reckless accusations as he tends to try to be balanced so what he said is based on what all of them know. Besides where did the mentally fragile article come from? It said William called Harry mentally fragile after the South Africa interview came out and yet KP did not take any steps to have that article retracted. Had it been false then we know KP would have had it pulled immediately. But it’s still out there almost two years later.

    So once again we have KP making threats and ITV caving because William throws his power around when he feels like it.

    • Chelsea says:

      The thing is Omid hardly ever makes accusations period. One of the many issues i had with FF was that it hardly ever actually went after any members of the RF. Outside of that passage where he says a source told him Harry thought William was being a snob about Meghan when they first started dating there was no insinuation at all of W or KP conspiring against H&M and he went to great pains to try and also see where William might have been coming from. I do think he genuinely wanted to be a RR that was mostly fair to all of them so for him to come out saying something as pointed as this, even though it’s something we all saw in real time, is interesting.

      • ElleE says:

        @Chelsea IKR? ITA. Omid reports like someone who knows he is being watched (unlike the batshit Royal reporters) by, someone (? IDK but I don’t think it is a message from the ppl mentioned in this thread).

        MM said they would work with POC, their chosen reporters, and I think he is one of them, even though he has not quoted them really.

        I was hoping that Omid was part of H&M’s methodical unfurling of their message and I have been personally waiting for him to say something interesting-this wasn’t it😂 Maybe he was just testing the waters here, evening broadcast, docu-style thing, and the Suxxexes found out what they needed to know. I am actually looking forward to whatever is coming next bc this is all being carefully managed…and the stakes are very high for H&M. People have invested in them and their image-they have to maintain it.

      • Saucy&Sassy says:

        ElleE, The Sussexes are managing their image well. They send legal letters when necessary and aren’t afraid to sue. I think what you need to remember is that although the media in the UK can get away with the stuff they write there, other countries have different laws. Yes, the US have the tabloid media–trust me we know who they are. And, yes, they do get sued periodically, so they know not to go too far. But we also have credible media. Journalists with ethics. Those ethical journalists (and they are everywhere in the US) are watching the tabloid BM and are getting to know who and what they are. I’m sure other countries are getting the same knowledge by watching, too. As long as there is journalistic integrity in other countries, what the UK thinks really isn’t going to make or break H&M.

        And, when any of these “royal experts” give interviews to the credible media sources, those outlets get lots of complaints about the veracity of the interviewee. That will continue, because we don’t want our real media to be used in that way.

  9. Southern Fried says:

    I’m ready for H&M to go nuclear on KP and the rest of the rotting Royals.

  10. A says:

    Ha ! Once again the genuis staff at Kensington palace demonstrates the importance of the sussex’s getting the hell out of there of course the dailymail told kensington about what Omid was going to say and of course Kensington palace clumsly tried to kill the story ( only to make the story more distributed than it would have been had you just let it go and ignore a stupid special that almost know one probably watched). I guess my only question is why has the dailymail become so focused on Omid? And, why do they give damn what he says one way or the other? If I had to put money on it, I would say they have no more sources even kinda attached to camp sussex post lawsuit (saynara Mr. Markle!) and are now just reliant on information Omid puts out publicly, hints them telling KP to kill it so they could present the scoop as there own!

  11. Amelie says:

    Omid isn’t on the KP list of approved reporters to leak to. That’s the only reason this is an issue. William and KP didn’t care before when the ROTA rays were running around talking about how KP was leaking about Harry’s mental health but because Omid is talking, it’s an issue. Also probably because more people potentially will take it seriously since it’s coming from Omid?

    But anyways Valentine Lowe was all giddy talking about how he was being told about Meghan’s problems. He was boasting about being told private info. They can all shut up.

  12. Amy Bee says:

    As I said yesterday the press was briefed by KP about William’s belief that Harry was fragile. It was on the front pages. So KP is lying when they say that they have never briefed the press about Harry’s mental health.

  13. Sunday says:

    This story has broken my brain.

    How many hundreds of thousands of articles have been written over the past few years where the entire story about how Harry is struggling, Harry is weak-minded, etc is predicated on information from “sources close to william,” “sources close to kate,” royal aides, palace insiders, etc? Where are those supposed to have come from, if not (at least in part) from KP? Why does Omid need to prove anything independently, can’t he just say he read it on the Daily Fail and point to 9832798237987 different articles?

    Obviously Omid is being targeted because of who he is, but I really don’t think KP wants this smoke because there are countless stories specifically about Harry’s mental health that are exclusively driven through anonymous palace sources. I mean, am I crazy??

    • L4frimaire says:

      It’s becoming so tedious. Lacey and his ilk can watch the Me You Can’t See if they’re so concerned with Harry’s mental health. It’s so bad that Lacey just took this info and smears and didn’t fact check or provide analysis, just parroted KP. It’s becoming really stale, it seems suspect that he’s just adding this stuff when he supposedly had done his research, and if he gets sued, won’t be surprised.

  14. DellT says:

    I learned, in this thread, that Dan Wootton has said the RF briefed against Meghan and Harry. Im not surprised. As an aside, it seems Wootton is turning on the Royals, or at least reminding them to stay in their place. He wrote a savage story yesterday about how the RF are hypocrites who have never used the NHS

    • taris says:

      see my comment up on #3

    • Sofia says:

      I’ve found it and read it and it seems Wootton is more pissed at the NHS rather than the royals. He uses the royals to further his “The NHS suck!” point of his column but no, to me, it doesn’t seem like he’s actually turning on them.

  15. Lori says:

    Thats the timeline as I saw it play out on DM, and funnily enough it wasnt until after the clip was pulled from the Doc that Kate was missing from NHS big tea party. I dont know if I believe she got pinged, but I do believe she doesnt want to show her face with William until it all dies down.

  16. 809Matriarch says:

    In 2019, right after the SA trip, a newspaper article QUOTED a source close to William saying he was concerned about Harry’s fragile mental state. These clowns forget the internet is forever.

    • Sunday says:

      Yes! Precisely! I think something else is going on here, and it’s that the RRs are getting sick of towing the palace line and are chomping at the bit to expose what’s really going on with the Cambridges and KP et. al.

      By “reporting” on Omid’s claims being removed from the documentary, these tabloids are only exposing the fact that KP had ITV remove these claims and then explaining extensively exactly what was removed. It’s only making William look guilty and KP and ITV look incredibly corrupt. If they were truly worried about damaging William’s reputation then their coverage would focus on the aspects of the documentary that KP actually wanted out there. This is a hitpiece on William, and maybe KP – not Omid, who can easily point to a thousand different articles and show “sources close to William” “royal aides” etc. He’s only repeating what’s been written about for years.

  17. Noor says:

    This once again shows that the British monarchy has the institutional power to curb the media . Only they choose to exercises it selectively mainly to defend the reputation of Prince William, the heir to the throne.

    • smarmyo says:

      Related story in (Dutch) hln.be today: .The ‘invisible pact’ that defines everything: complex bond between British royals and tabloids exposed (Het ‘invisible pact’ dat alles bepaalt: complexe band tussen Britse royals en tabloids blootgelegd) – PAYWALLED Intro quote: “..Now that Queen Elizabeth (95) has decided that the court can and will respond to bad stories in the media, ‘the game’ that the popular press and the royal members are playing is threatening to get out of hand. ….”

  18. Lyds says:

    I believe that Omid actually has evidence, but KP did not want it to come to light and had the segment removed so they would never have to sue. ITV decided to yield to the big man and edit Omid’s comments to please them. It’s easier to pull something then claim that it was defamatory rather than have it air and issue denials because then people would wonder why you are not suing for defamation.

    I also believe that Omid didn’t want to give up his sources. He made the comments on the record and was ready to deal with the aftermath publicly.

    • Nic919 says:

      ITV also made sure to tell the DM that they had to edit the documentary because of KP threats and they outlined to them what was removed. If the comments were truly defamatory they wouldn’t have spread them like that. So someone at ITV decided to point out that KP is meddling with things.

      Omid would have been one of the few people to notice how he was edited and it might never have been mentioned if someone didn’t tell the DM what ITV had to remove.

      • Becks1 says:

        Yup, I said in one of these comments that it reminds me of the Tatler article, where it was apparently so “hurtful and false” but the RRs wrote several articles basically writing verbatim from the article. And then when it was edited they ran stories telling us exactly what was removed.

  19. Curious says:

    why will William (or whoever that did not want omid on that doc want him out from it). not have Omid in that doc? i mean if Omid is wrong according to them, why not air it and sue him? its a win ,win for the royal family. no need to cut it . but instead of suing Omid they protected him according to them, and cut that part out. so why interview him in the first place.? plus they don’t give a crap about Omid. so why not let it air and sue him afterwards.. they scared. omid got some receipts.

  20. Robin Samuels says:

    Omid is not stupid and neither is the network he represents. William has made statements concerning Harry’s mental health on more than one occasion. Remember the ” I can’t put my arms around my brother any longer.?” Omid is not lying and the thought of him being sued is not the issue. When has KP of BM produced supporting documents? William is already the CEO of the KP Meghan Markle Smear Campaign. Removing that stench will not be easy. Then he steps out with the Mental Health Advocate BS. He can’t do that with an allegation of leaking his brother’s mental health issues to the press. Harry has never made his mental health issues a secret but William wants to use it as a weapon. 17 million people watched The Me You Can’t See. Is it possible William didn’t watch it? I think he knows Harry is no longer living to protect him, it’s all about his family now. If anyone can expose William’s dark side, it’s Harry. I’m cvonvinced, William has some serious issues.

  21. Likeyoucare says:

    They (BM and BRF) are afraid of omid, because omid have wider influent of readers and views.

    No one with a functioning brain will believe that BM report of facts, BM are gossipers.

    When BM wrote about willie leaks Harry mental health- that is gossip.
    If omid say it- then it will become fact.

  22. Sunnyvale says:

    Well well.. so KP can shut down reports,magazines issues & TV clips when they choose to😏basically proving what H&M said was right. They host these people n give them access for good press.
    The thing is that the more DM/BM & the palace go after omid the more powerful he becomes. They’re too stupid to realise how they helped sell his book😂this little stunt only makes people more curious about what he has to say

  23. aquarius64 says:

    Omid has an in with the US press which makes this stupid. He could drop his receipts with Gayle King.

  24. Jais says:

    Honestly, it’s kind of insulting to omid. If I was him I’d be kinda p*ssed. Like all you rota white journalists already wrote this, and then when I repeat what’s out there, I’m the one asked for evidence. GTFOH. There’s more going on with this, I know, but at the end of the day, they gaslight him, like they do Meghan.
    Hmm…also maybe they are trying to press him to get him to reveal a close Sussex source…so they can effing steal and colonize his source. These mothereffers.

  25. Marivic says:

    When William and Kate and the Royal family say something defamatory about Meghan and Harry, nobody but nobody can demand from them to show proof. However, it’s a totally different ballgame with the RF—proof/evidence is demanded if statements are defamatory of William, Kate, and the RF. That’s why most people outside of the UK hate these racist of a family.

  26. Christine says:

    I’ve said this before, but it must be said again…your photo choices are always thought-provoking and ABSOLUTELY hilarious.