Scobie Omid - Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan, and the Making of a Modern Royal Family

A huge debt of gratitude to Liate Stehlik at HarperCollins and to Carrie Thornton at Dey Street books for believing in this project, for your vision, your guidance, and your leadership assembling such a fabulous team. Carrie, we were so lucky to find such a talented editor with such vast experience.

Albert Lee, from the very beginning until the very end your unwavering support, your enthusiasm, and knowledge of the book world has been invaluable. Thank you also to Rebecca Paley for your creativity and passion bringing this book to life. None of this would have been possible without the incredible editorial team at HarperCollins and Dey Street Books including Andrea Molitor, Peter Kispert, Heidi Richter, Kendra Newton, Kelly Rudolph, Ploy Siripant, Pam Barricklow, Andy LeCount, Christine Edwards, Beth Silfin, Arthur Heard, and Carolyn Bodkin. David Wiener, Steve Sadicario, and Zander Kim at UTA, I am very grateful. A special thanks to the many individuals who agreed to speak on background who generously gave of their time, sometimes repeatedly as I returned with more questions, more requests for clarity so I could tell an authentic portrait of Harry and Meghans life.

Brenda Rodriguez thank you for your faith in me. Peter Hunt, Laura Day, Michael Hager, Mark Miller, Miguel Marquez, Michelle Dodd, Julie Bick, John Green, Santina Leuci, Alexa Miranda, Marc Eisenberg, I am so lucky to have you in my life.

Omid, Im so grateful we were able to create something so meaningful that meant so much to both of us.

Phyllis McGrady, I cant imagine any of this would have happened had you not sent me on this incredible journey to London 18 years ago. You have been an incredible mentor and I appreciate your ongoing friendship. Mark Robertson, you never cease to amaze me. Thank you for your kindness and support.

Anne Morris Salinas, no matter how high the hurdle, you have been there with encouragement. I wouldnt have had the confidence to embark on this path without you. David and Victoria Wright thank you for always being there and bringing your three little girls into my life. Moomer, Phinna, and Deanna you make it all worthwhile. Karen Trosset, I cant thank you enough for your unwavering support and friendship through thick and thin. Anne Ferguson Foster Ill never be able to truly express my gratitude for the overwhelming generosity you and Dave have given me the last year.

How could I even begin without thanking the incredible team at Dey Street and HarperCollins who have made this special book a reality, especially during such a challenging time in our world. Peter Kispert, Ben Steinberg, Heidi Richter, Kendra Newton, Kelly Rudolph, Ploy Siripant (I love our cover!), Andrea Molitor, Pam Barricklow, Carolyn Bodkin, Andy LeCount, Christine EdwardsIm a lucky man to have such an talented team led by the strong editorial hand of Carrie Thornton. Carrie, its been a pleasure learning from you. Of course, none of this would be possible without Liate Stehlik.

Albert Lee, after all these years Im so glad we still get to work together. Thank you for always being there with just the right advice and guiding me through every challenge. Those specials were just the start! Zander Kim and David Weiner at UTAI appreciate all your help. Rebecca Paley, thank you for helping me find my voice. Ive learned so much from you and cant wait to take you out for tea and crumpets! And Reena Ratan, thank you for the support and the incredible photo research.

Carolyn, we actually finished it! So happy we were able to create Finding Freedom together.

To all the people who have contributed to this book, whether generously taking time out of your schedule to meet up or dealing with my fiftieth sorry, just one more question email, what a journey it has been! I wish I could thank you by name, but in order to preserve anonymity Ill just have to say that it is only with your help that these stories came to life. I only hope I can be as helpful in return some day.

To all my colleagues who have been so, so supportive as Ive juggled this project with the others I am lucky enough to have. To the awesome teams at ABC News, Good Morning America, and ABC Audio thank you for making going to work so much funI promise to always bring Yoshi on location. To my Harpers Bazaar family, so proud to work with you allthanks for keeping me sane with the memes. And to anyone who clicks, reads, watches, or listens to any of my workthank you for always being supportive. You make the long hours worth it.

I have to, of course, thank my amazing friends for their patience and understanding as I went through every range of emotions putting these pages together. Youll be pleased to hear you wont have to listen to me talking about the book anymore!

And lastly to my beautiful familythank you for always supporting me and believing in me. Love you to the moon and back.

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This book takes place between 2016 and 2020 and is based on more than two years of reporting. The events described in these pages draw on hundreds of hours of conversations and interviews with more than one hundred sources, as well as our own time accompanying, observing, and interacting with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on all of their formal and informal royal engagements. We have joined them on a wide variety of domestic trips and foreign travels. The reporting process has taken us around the world, including trips to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, several countries in Africa, France, Canada, New York, and Los Angeles. We have spoken with close friends of Harry and Meghan, royal aides and palace staff (past and present), the charities and organizations they have built long-lasting relationships with and, when appropriate, the couple themselves.

In many instances, we have granted sources anonymity to allow freedom to candidly provide direct quotes without their names being attributed (either due to the sensitivity of roles or to protect careers). Many individuals have also spoken to us on what is known as on-background, meaning the information from conversations can be used as guidance but no quotes repeated. In a few cases, conversations have been strictly off-the-record.

Some of the scenes in this book have been witnessed personally while for others we have relied on the consistency of accounts provided by sources we have been given access to and come to trust. Conversational dialogue in scenes featured in the book has been drawn directly from accounts shared by multiple sources, who have corroborated the same information. These are versions of events both of us believe to be true.

As two fact-driven, objective journalists working in an era of fast news and clickbait reporting, we have continued to follow a strict standard of fact-checking and all information featured in this book has at least two sources. In cases where sources from opposing parties have disagreed on versions of events, we have put forward both.