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This is Later with Lee Matthews The
Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you

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hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Almond Scoby is a London based journalist,

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author of Harper's Bizarre, editor at
Large at Yahoo. We had him on

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last with his New York Times best
selling biography Duke and Duchess of Sussex Finding

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Freedom. His newest creation is called
Endgame, Inside the Royal Family and the

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Monarchy's fight for survival. Good to
have Almond Scoby back on again. Hi,

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It's good to talk to you again. Lee. It's been a long

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time. Yeah. You know this
book has saidainly caused already ruffled a few

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feathers since its release. You know
what was so interesting to me was writing

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a book without the sort of feel
of favor of having to maintain a relationship

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with the Palace. I have covered
the world since twenty eleven. I sometimes

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have felt over those years that the
best stories have had to be sat on

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in order to maintain access, and
so after the Queen's death, it felt

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like the right time to sort of
pull back and assess the story, but

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also tell sides of it that I
believe that hadn't been told before, and

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this isn't just dirty laundry, This
isn't just temper tantrums, is it.

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No? I think I really wanted
to kind of differentiate, to kind of

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establish a difference between the Row soap
opera and what is ultimately sort of like

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a constitutional matter. At the same
time, you know, this is an

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establishment that sits at the heart of
the British nation and across the Commonwealth realms,

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and so listen. I spent a
lot of time covering the death of

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Queen Elizabeth, and one of the
things that really stood out to me during

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that time was the fact that we
were celebrating the fact that she had always

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risen above the fray, but also
upheld and line of morals, ethics and

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values that I then questioned, was
that the same with the current working royals.

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Well, I think you and I
talked about that last time I had

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you on. Queen Elizabeth has had
always a sense of even though she may

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not have been born with it,
because she really in her childhood had no

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idea she was going to be queen
up until you know, maybe her mid

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teens and later, but she had
that sense of no blessed oblige do any

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of the children of Queen Elizabeth have
that same strong grounded sense. Yeah,

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it was very interesting speaking with the
people that had spent so much time with

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the Queen during her seventy years on
the throne, and the one thing that

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was sort of universally shared by all
was the fact that she never cared about

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the polls, She never cared about
the press coverage, She never cared about

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what people thought of her. It
was always about the Crown as a whole

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institution at large, and that was
what she was there to serve as well

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as the nation. And unfortunately,
I don't feel the same can be said

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when you look at perhaps the agendas
of King Charles or Queen ca Miller or

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even Prince William, it seems to
be sort of currently a lineup of individuals

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who are operating in silo. It's
focused on personal pr agendas and sort of

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solo battles against the press or their
own public image, which is very different

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to what we had seen with the
Queen, and ultimately that has had a

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negative impact on the institution at large. You know, it has pushed certain

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individuals out, such as Harry and
Meghan, but it has also raised questions

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over whether this is now an institution
that has modernized, that is still a

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reflection of modern day British values,
but whether it has lost its way somewhat.

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And Batist doesn't get into whether the
family should last or not. I

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want to leave that up to the
reader. I do want to make it

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clear that there are things that can
change and be done in order to create

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a better future for the Royal Family. In Game Inside the Royal Family and

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the Monarchy's Fight for Survival, Ole
mid Scobee is the author longtime chronicler of

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the Royal Family. I couldn't help
notice at the coronation of King Charles how

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wretchedly unhappy he looked. Was he
that unhappy? It was very interesting,

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Given that King Charles has been the
longest role in turning the majority of his

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life, you would have thought it
would have also been the happiest day of

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his life. And you know,
it has been a kind of long running

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scene that I've seen throughout the first
year of his reign. In fact,

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I talk in the book about how
even some of the aides around him feel

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that just a year in he's already
a lit fed up and bored by some

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of the sort of hum drum of
the job, sort of that famous red

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box of paperwork that he has to
deal with every day. The admin that

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the Queen regularly relished has kind of
taken away some of the funds from the

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job from him. You know,
the Prince of Wales, he was a

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rule breaker. He was able to
do his own thing. He was able

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to sort of fly the flag for
his environmentalism and some of the things that

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really kind of like pushed the boundaries
of what was acceptable for a while or

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not. But it's what made him
special, and I think we've had to

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see some of that pulled back on
in order to kind of carry out what

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is a very kind of administrative role. You know, often the personality,

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the lively stuff comes from the surrounding
family members, and so it's been an

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adjustment to him. But I would
also say at the same time, he

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is steering the ships steadily. You
know, you can't fault him for that

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first year. I definitely has been
I think kind of a reality check for

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him as well. The big job
perhaps wasn't as exciting as he put one's

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thought. And how about the Duke
and Duchess of Sessex. I mean they

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seem to be out trying to redefine
what their role is. At the same

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time. Yeah, you know,
a lot of people have suggested that perhaps

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this is a book about Harry and
Meganall this is the follow ups my last

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one, and the couple don't even
appear until I think page one hundred and

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forty six in the book, and
I make it very clear that to the

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Royal story today, the couple are
essentially irrelevant. You know, they have

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built the autonomous life that they wanted
in California and as a result that is

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completely separate from the Royal institution.
But I also think that their experiences and

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their stories within the Royal fold do
serve as some great examples when it comes

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to those discussions about whether the institution
has modernized, where there it's still upholding

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certain kind of values and ethics and
morals that the queen famously did. And

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you know, listen, I think
Harry and Meghan definitely have moved on from

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telling their stories about royal days,
and I think that that will suit them

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well, given that they were dangerously
close to becoming permanently synonymous with the Royal

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soap opera. But I think they
do also leave a void behind in an

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institution that now lacks diversity and kind
of modern representation, Speaking of which Catherine

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seems to have settled into the into
her role rather well. Yeah, you

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know, I talk in the book
about who the Princess of Wales will Caate

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is today, and you know,
I think when you compare her to the

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other family members, she is the
one that has managed something that none of

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the others have, which is to
maintain a certain level of mystique and mystery.

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We still to this day don't know
much about what Kate thinks, what

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her opinions are on things, unless
it's carefully released by the palace that has

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been intentional to create that stately detachment
that we really only knew Queen Elizabeth a

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second for. She's managed to successfully
do it, and I think that that

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is kind of the making of a
successful royal, to be almost the blank

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canvas that you can allow the public
to reject whatever image or need or want

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or expectation they want onto you.
And so she's done a great job in

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that respect. But at the same
time, I think we also live in

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a day where we do want transparency
and we do want authenticity from our public

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figures, and so I also think
I talk about in the book some of

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my favorite moments that I had spent
with Case over the years covering the world.

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Some of the kind of life of
hearted moments, such as being on

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the in India looking at Rhino Rhino's
sources with the time she bursts into fits

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of giggles away from the cameras.
Those are the moments I think that the

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nation and the world could do with
seeing absolutely bit more of. Well,

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that's what I was getting at is
that she seems very comfortable in that role

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as well. Om At scobee.
He is a London based journalist and has

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written a new book, Endgame and
The Inside Royal Inside the Royal family and

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the Monarchy's fight for survival. You
be the judge if they will survive.

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And thank you for joining us,
Omit scobi turnently, thanks for listening to

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Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews
Podcast, and remember to listen to The

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Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to
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