The paperback edition of Finding Freedom is out today, with a new epilogue detailing all of the stuff that’s gone down with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex following their exit from royal life early last year. Honestly, a whole other book could have been written about all of the sh-t that went down between January 2020 to present day. The British press going full-on bonkers, the obsession with bathrooms, the Netflix deal, the Spotify deal, BetterUp, Meghan investing in a start-up, the Oprah interview, Meghan’s children’s book, and on and on. It’s been a lot! Still, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand tried to summarize as best they could.
Excerpts from the FF epilogue have already been parceled out in recent weeks – go here and here to read some – but I thought it might be worth it to highlight a few pieces of news. FF says that Harry and Meghan had a “low key celebration” for their second wedding anniversary, getting Mexican takeout and exchanging cotton-based gifts (the second anniversary is cotton). FF also confirms that Harry and Meghan took a mortgage out on their Montecito home. And they have no regrets about any of it:
In the new epilogue to the book Finding Freedom, royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write, “As difficult as recent years have been, sources close to the Sussexes say that neither Harry nor Meghan have any regrets about the decisions they have made.”
The epilogue also notes that Meghan, especially, is proud of what she has accomplished over the past year, from her new children’s book, The Bench, to her philanthropic efforts with charities in both California, the UK, and internationally. Friends of the Duchess reportedly say she “is ‘proud’ to see how far she has come and what she and Harry have been able to build in the brief twelve months of their new financially independent lives.”
The book calls these accomplishments “another sign that [Meghan and Harry] had made the right decision to step back from royal roles, not only for their family but for their focus on social issues and helping the world.”
This is for all of those royal commentators screeching for the past year and a half, claiming that Harry is so sad to leave “everything” behind, that Harry misses being his brother’s doormat or that Harry will totally abandon his wife and children to return to the UK. No regrets! I believe it too. That’s not to say that Harry doesn’t or can’t miss some parts about his life in Britain, but I honestly believe he’s embraced his new American life. And y’all know Meghan is so relieved to be out of that toxic island.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instagram.
This is what will always gaud the RF and the most – that H&M really have no regrets. That their life really is better than being a royal puppet. That being part of the royal penny show really is not all they are making it out to be.
H&M are showing how useless and outdated the RF is, and that cannot be forgiven.
Spot on. They have shown you can be successful without a vault of stolen family jewels. They pulled the curtain down about the racism and ugly family jealousy and pettiness on the way out. And worst of all, they have no desire to go back. To the bitter salty Royals that is unforgivable
I’m so happy for Meghan and Harry and their babies. I’ll admit in the beginning, I was one who was disappointed that they decided to leave but am so glad that they had the moxie to do it. The venom that that family of his (and some of hers) and the UK press have spewed at them is not something I could have endured. I’m so proud of them.
I couldn’t have endured it and was hoping for them to leave well before they made the decision to do so. It was so vicious I didn’t know how she in particular was managing it and later to learn how it affected her was gut wrenching. So happy they left.
@BnlurNforever — I was like you! I decided then to always support her no matter what! everything she puts out or wears, I will buy regardless of the cost!
I don’t know how she survived it; I personally know I couldn’t without exploding or doing something drastic!
I wonder how Doria did it! I cannot imagine my mother or grandmother or dad or any member of my family saying nothing in the face of relentless racism/bullying/xenophobia… .when I think her own father joined into it as well, I don’t know how she can forgive him. She probably must forgive him to move on otherwise it is like poison……
I couldn’t care less for Harry if I’m perfectly honest, before Meghan I didn’t care for any of them but I have a ton of respect for him for taking his family out of that environment!
Yes, these monarchy and British media treated Meghan worst that something stuck to the bottom of their shoes. How can you live with yourself knowing you set out to kill a pregnant woman? Meghan has a mother and they disrespected and disregarded her by treating her daughter like this.
There is a special place in hell for all of these vile people.
I will forever love Harry for saying enough is enough and taking his family out of hell .
There will never be any forgiveness from me towards the monarchy and the media
I honestly believe that Harry is pinching himself daily over how lucky he is, his beautiful, bad bitch of a wife, 2 beautiful kids, a beautiful home, dogs and chickens, a thriving career and complete control of his existence.
Complete with no one trying to stab you in the back every day and no more regular meetings about feeding the machine of a press industry you despise.
Yeah, Harry has repeatedly said he has no regrets. In the Apple TV series, he said he wished he’d done it four years earlier. And Harry and Meghan had already told us that they took out a mortgage.
You leave a toxic job to set up as your own boss. Why would you have regrets?
Word. Who wants to break back into Alcatraz?
I read that as “Azkaban.” It fits. The men in gray were certainly dementor-like, sucking the joy out of H & M’s lives.
Even now that place is depressing and it has been empty for years.
It’s mind-boggling that these observers are so upset that H&M jumped off the train before they were pushed.
Go Meghan and Harry! Life is too short for toxicity. I’m of the opinion that the British public and the media have low-to-medium level expectations that utter misery is the “price” that royals pay for their wealth and privilege, and that they should wallow in that misery for the amusement of the public. I think there was some eagerness to see a black woman ground down in that misery–partially as “payment” for the privilege of being a royal and part of “getting what’s coming to her from overreaching her station.” My exhibit A is Kate–there seems to be a sense of “rightness” that her good press comes from her silence and her thinness, that she is “properly suffering” from the privilege of being a Princess. I think a lot of the outrage in the the UK about Meghan is that she wasn’t willing to “suffer for the privilege.” And we know how they all feel about Harry–his family would rather him be a miserable alcoholic who clowns around and sleeps around rather than a man of honor who protects his family. If they could turn him into a Pedo Andy, Epstein connection and all, they would. Meghan and Harry have too much to give and too much to live for to serve as emotional punching bags for damaged, jealous, and mediocre people.
HnM suffering really seems to be what some of the citizens of the UK expected and wished them to endure. We know it’s what the RR demanded of them and are still demanding of them. It’s so bizarre that anyone would expect two intelligent able bodied young people to just take this kind of abuse when there’s a whole world of opportunities out there to explore. UK citizens, BM and BRF seem so offended if sentiments are to be gauged from social media, print media and television in the UK.
What disgusting people the ratchets are–to be this emotionally invested in the suffering for other people. What utterly miserable lives they must lead. I’m just glad that harry and meghan are away from that toxic waste.
I definitely agree with this Lanne. Part of the National psyche in England seems to be enjoying watching people getting pummelled by the tabloids & I think some feel deprived of not watching Meghan become a shadow of herself to conform. which is why even liberal types who knew she faced racism & misogyny, can still resent her deciding to leave & doing well subsequently.
From an Agatha Christie I just reread –
“I do think sometimes one’s sense of proportion—oh, I don’t mean you, Mr. Serrocold. Really I don’t know what I mean—but the English are rather odd that way. Even in war, so much prouder of their defeats and their retreats than of their victories. Foreigners never can understand why we’re so proud of Dunkerque. It’s the sort of thing they’d prefer not to mention themselves. But we always seem to be almost embarrassed by a victory—and treat it as though it weren’t quite nice to boast about it. And look at all our poets! ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade.’ And the little Revenge went down in the Spanish Main. It’s really a very odd characteristic when you come to think of it!”
@Nick G – Is that the one with Miss Marple and the home for juvenile delinquents? I love the quote. I remember reading a British historian who said that the embarrassment in victory wasn’t because boasting isn’t quite nice, but that the victories were so many and so crushing and so wide-spread.
@Eurydice yes that’s the one, “They do it with mirrors “ and after a few decades of forgetting it, I rediscovered it to be a jolly little circus of racism and xenophobia. Unreal.
About the victories, I would have said that it was about not boasting, but I was thinking the same thing as your historian today. He’s probably right. 🙁
I agree. Well said!
This. Yes!
They have two little ones … they don’t have time for regret. They probably are just grateful for some quiet moments of peace under the tree every day. Plus, they are far, far away from William.
Glad the got out of there. The BRF and BM has given the UK a black eye when it comes to Harry and Meghan.
No shit Sherlock! all the details about the mortgage was available to the public, are we suppose to be surprise, when omid tell us.
I am convinced that omid has the same source as the general public, Harry publicly said he had no regrets leaving the BRF, Meghan told Gloria S she was happy to be home.
And even if they didn’t say it look at them.
I agree – Omid can’t have much access to ‘sources close to the couple’, because most of what he writes is already out there.
It only looks like he does because the standard journalistic embroidering and educated-guesses (‘they gave anniversary gifts of cotton’ might be right but since that’s the traditional gift it’s like saying someone sent roses on Valentines day!) are not mean-spirited and nasty like other ‘royal experts’ are.
I agree. I think the LA times broke the story of the house purchase & getting it with a mortgage. Harry said in the me you can’t see he had no regrets. I think it was on the Dax podcast that Harry said he was proud of himself& Meghan, how they feel lighter in California & like a load has been lifted. I think when the Bench hit the NYT best seller list they had comment on their website thanking fans & how proud they were. In the service is universal statement they also talked about continuing to honour obligations in U.K. & elsewhere & how they had proved that with work over the year.
So yeah Carolyn & omid can read & listen to Harry& Meghan’s own words or third party reporting just like all of us.
All of this info is already in the public domain and I think I read on this site the cotton for the anniversary gift. The website Dirt first broke the home purchase story. This epilogue is basically a summary of stuff already out there in the news, directly from the Sussexes or other sources, with some of the authors embellishments and projections.
Good for them. I’m excited to see what they do over the next several years.
In other words, water is wet and surprisingly the Pope is Catholic.
I’ve come to dislike Omid. This book has nothing to offer. All this information is already out there. Harry and meghan put $5 million down on the home and took out a mortgage. Nothing new. I no longer follow Omid. He simply made lots of money off H and M. He has no exclusive sources.
He already said that the book was just adding to what H&M have said in the months after the book came out using articles already in the public domain.
It’s for sure about money but he’s a reporter who has to make a living. That’s what all of them do no matter the field. I don’t fault him for that.
I think the issue for a lot of people isn’t that he’s writing a book in general. He’s not the first too nor will he be the last but him acting like he’s got “sources” when in reality he’s just picking up information in the public domain and putting it into the book. People get annoyed when Nicholl/Tominey/Eden/English/Ship/Wootton/etc claim to have information when they clearly don’t and Omid is being treated the same. I think it annoys fans even more when he acts like he’s got legitimate sources because his word about H&M is taken at gospel by most people including fans and the people who hate them.
I disagree about Omid not having access. Omid was the one who broke the story about Meghan sending the email asking if the crying story could be corrected. Where did he get that info from? He also was the one who confirmed that Harry was staying at Frogmore when he came home for the funeral when every other RR swore he was staying at KP near the Cambridges. So I don’t think its fair to lump him in with all the other Rota rats. They hate Omid for a reason, why is that if he just making stuff like they do? And I’m not mad that he wrote Finding Freedom either. Meghan said during the Mail trial that they told their friends it was ok to talk to Omid, why would they do that if there wasn’t some level of trust there? Finally, Omid has been the only RR who has pushed the issue of racism and the role it played in what happened to Meghan.
He did get their dogs name right. Meghan wrote a thank you note to someone and mentioned Pula.
More rehashing of info in the public domain by Scobie and Durand. Harry has twice said he had no regrets about leaving. His only regret not confronting things sooner and getting out sooner. Meghan stated her only regret was believing the institution when they told her they would protect her. The info about the mortgage came out around the same time as the info about the financial arrangement for frogmore. I think it was after the Netflix deal was announced. No one knew they had purchased the house and had already moved in until they announced it. It was also then that they said they were no longer receiving financial support aside from a payment given to them. Which was why the “revelation” in the duchy financial statement was a lie. They themselves talk about the payment Charles gave them in the summer after he cut them off from housing/security support in March. They made a point of emphasizing the house was bought with their own money and not anything Charles had given them.
Another Unanble’s charity is closing office, the hospital is still opened, but the charity arm is going bye, bye, was it due to lack of support from the Patron.
Is that the charity she didn’t visit for 8 years? Or is that the one where Kate bailed on hosting an event so Rose hosted it instead?
No, it’s the hospice charity I believe. The one where they called Kate out for not visiting in 800 years was an addiction charity.
Dear god, keen is letting a hospice charity fail? She truly has no conscious. I wish they would reach out to Harry and Meghan to help them.
Kate is a fragile white woman. You can’t expect her to do anything for anyone else. Everyone else is supposed to be taking care of her.
Again, he’s just repeating info that’s already out there. Harry has already said he has no regrets. The news that they took out a mortgage came out when the news of them purchasing a house did.
This book really isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know. Thanks for stating the obvious Omid! This book constantly gives the Sussexes unnecessary grief in the media because everyone takes this as an official statement from the Sussexes. Omid really is making money off the backs of the Sussexes, making it seem like he has insider sources but in reality, everything he knows is already on the public domain and/or can be assumed based on the decisions the Sussexes have made. Harry has mentioned repeatedly that he has no regrets and that he is finally happy. He’s always wanted to leave the gilded cage. Why would someone who has tasted freedom for the first time in their entire life suddenly turn around to go back and be told what to do all his life? Harry isn’t turning back. Especially now that he’s a rich millionaire with a gorgeous family and home.
If things ever go drastically wrong with the Sussexes down the line, I don’t think he’ll ever give up his freedom to be a show pony again. He is one of the very few people who got out a trapping environment and that’s why the BRF are mad, because they envy him. They want to have his life.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up being billionaires in the coming 5 – 10 years. That would surely chap the British people. Someone would be incandescent with rage for sure.
Harry and Meghan are finally living authentically and I think it’s just the start for them. I just hope they eventually fully move on from the RF and the UK and cut all ties if they have to because that environment is toxic. Their decision is definitely a blessing in disguise for their kids because imagine the turmoil Archie and Lili would experience in the UK had they grown up around the Cambridges. They would be the constant scapegoats.
I’m starting to be of the opinion that Harry should go ahead and renounce all titles. He and Meghan will still be called the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and their children will be known as the Prince and Princess the royals wouldn’t accept. Yes the titles are the childrens’ birthrights, but those kids will never be accepted in that family, and I wouldn’t want my children to have any connection to people who hate them. They’ll have plenty of money from their own parents. It’s exactly what the royal family deserves. They have HRH Prince Pedo, with military honors galore.
Screw that. As long as the pedo gets to keep his then they should keep theirs.
@Kelsey & Lanne — I agree with you both
Sometimes, I wish H renounced those titles; his kids will live in the US anyway, I highly doubt they will ever consider the uk as their country or use those titles; they are useless in the US
at other times, I am like Kelsey; let the rf take those titles instead of H renouncing them! let charles do it while andrew and all the other useless royals still have theirs……
Agreed, Kelsey. As long as the haters and racists want the titles removed, Harry and Meghan should keep them. They’ve done nothing to deserve the removal of them, so let the ratchets keeping being upset about it.
Neither Charles, Baldemort or QEII can “remove” a title.
Titles can can only be removed by a act of Parliament and Parliament will not touch this mess with a ten-foot pole.
I go back and forth honestly. On one hand, I’d like Harry to force his awful family’s hands by rejecting them utterly. They don’t deserve any loyalty or affinity from him. On the other hand, the fact that they exist as royals should remain a thorn in the side of the royal family, especially as the royal family has chosen to protect Pedo Andy while simultaneously denying Harry and Meghan. They created their own mess, and they get to wallow in it. I only want Harry and Meghan and even more so, the children that I have zero faith in the royal family to care for or protect, to be happy and safe. It’s clear as day that those children would not be safe or treated well within the royal family. I honestly don’t trust them to keep the 2 younger Cambridge kids safe and happy either, but at least they won’t be openly mistreated.
Both the younger kids will absolutely be mistreated, constrasted with the heir. Or rather, Charlotte will be cast in the Andrew or Harry role in the tabloids. Like Edward, no one will remember W&K Child #3.
Everything is worked out as best it could for them. They left at the perfect time imo. The best thing William (allegedly) did in regards to them was leaking their plans to Dan Wooten and pitching a fit about Plan A. Half in and out would’ve been a nightmare. A clean break was ultimately the best thing for them.
I agree 100% with that. Someone should have explained to William what “Be careful what you wish for” means. But he wanted them gone so enjoy your royal pie William.
Today is the 24th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, it is being commemorated with the release of a paperback detailing her son’s challenges before and especially after his marriage. This is a cynical marketing move.
Why would anyone want to be in an environment where they are expected to be half of themselves?
Where a successful outcome in community service is seen as personal threat to be met with insidious attacks (via briefings) to their mental and emotional well being?
Where briefings lead to hypervisibility and threats to their physical well being?
As they say “Keep calm and carry on”.
I like to think that Harry knew that because of their arrogance they would reject the half in/half out model, which is why he even suggested it. That’s probably not the case since Harry and Meghan were basically going on faith and a prayer when they left, but I like thinking that he knew how they would respond and he needed a clean break and this way by them rejecting his offer, he could walk away clean. But then I also thought they had those deals lined up and knew exactly what they were doing and it turned out that they didn’t so…
That’s not what Harry said though. He said that he and Charles and the Queen had been talking about the plan for months. So its not like he just pulled it out of the air, they must have given him the idea that they could make it work, otherwise it would have been a non starter from the beginning. I think William is the one who torpedoed the idea. I’m guessing he whined (incandescently) how it wasn’t fair that Harry and Meghan should get to enjoy life while he and Keen had to stay there and “suffer” at the hands of the Rota. He’s a selfish bastard and now that he’s got the whole stage to himself, he’s still not happy, still siccing his Rota dogs after the Sussexes.
I think it was William too. Charles and the Queen would have been happy to have Harry and Meghan in the half-in, half-out plan. William pitched a screaming fit, starting flinging around ideas of banishing them to ‘Africa’, had his staff endangered Sussex Family by releasing their location in Canada. In the face of that unhinged behavior, Queen and Charles caved to William and pulled the half-in offer.
I think temporarily relocating the Sussexes to South Africa was QEII’s idea but when the idea was researched and vetted, South Africa did not want the Sussexes in residence due to security problems and associated security costs. I could be be wrong but I seem to definitely remember reading scenario this somewhere.
“Exiled to Africa” is such a ridiculous idea anyway. This isn’t 1950. The Sussexes would be just as visible and popular in Africa as they would be anywhere else.
I don’t think the idea was S.A., Bay, nor that it came from the Queen. I think it was William’s racist/colonial attitude that all of ‘Africa’ looks like Jecca’s family compound. He wanted them exiled to somewhere they’d never be heard from again.
From what was leaked by a NZ minister, the Sussexes were already looking at New Zealand by fall 2018.
Agree with all who say Omid is repeating info already available but it seem to me he is the only one not twisting the info to make everything the D&D do Sussex do into an attach on the rf.
I think everyone should cut Omid some slack. A journalist’s responsibility is to provide a complete and accurate record of events. As a former journalist, when I started out, I used to get tired of repeating the same history in every single article of an ongoing story. But my editor explained that you cannot assume the reader is familiar with previous articles. In that light, FF is not for people who read Celebitchy, meghanpedia.com or follow the SussexSquad. FF is simply as complete a record of events as possible that a journalist is obligated to write.
You have a point and if he presented it the way you stated it then it would be fine. A simple journalistic recounting of events. But that’s not what he’s doing. He presenting it as info gathered from his inside, close to the couple sources. Which has led to the Sussexes being harassed and accused of being hypocrites and liars. Meghan had to give a deposition about the original book. I think that a why the Sussexes jumped in so fast with their lawyers this time to address the issue. They recognized how the accusation that they cooperated with the book could impact and they weren’t going to go through that again.
That might be the most unnecessary statement ever uttered. Why would they have regrets? Like, have you seen their new life?
Meagan and Harry are happy. HOW DARE THEY!!!!!
I love how happy and comfortable Harry looks flying into North America in jeans, beanie and down jacket. Instead of those stiff awful prince clothes. Escape! Imagine the relief of changing into those clothes.
Lots of people from all over the world live in California. Harry doesn’t have to be lonely. Imagine William or Charles trying to make this same brave transformation. Welcome, Harry
That’s what I was thinking. I live in California, and I’m surrounded by folks who came here from somewhere else, pursuing career opportunities, restarting their lives after a loss/defeat, trying to reinvent themselves, or just looking for good weather. This state has its faults, but overall, it’s a good place for anyone wanting a new life.
Welcome, H & M! And your kids will be native Californians or good as! One of my favorite fantasies is that Archie and Lili go to college in CA, maybe UC Santa Barbara or UC Santa Cruz or some other beach-adjacent campus, and become laid-back surfer types, advocating for clean seas and chill living. Their parents can be peaceful under a tree, and the kids can be Zen on the waves.
I am really happy for the Sussex family-no regrets mean no regrets-I believe Harry saw the writing on the wall as it related to his marriage and children-He was not going to stand around and allow them to be hurt by his family or the British press-I respect what road he took to achieve his goals-Harry and Meghan want to decide what charities or activities they want to participate in-not things forced upon them where they can no imput. God bless the Sussex family and keep them in his heart. I truly wish nothing but good things for them and will support them wherever I can.