A Montecito Yankee in King Charles’ court

Evidently Finding Freedom was not nearly liberating enough for the self-exiled Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Nor was dropping a bomb during their interview with Oprah Winfrey when Meghan implied that a then-unnamed member of the British Royal Family was racist for having “concerns” over her son Archie’s skin color — an accusation from which Harry subsequently backed down, but only long after the damage had been done.

Harry now maintains that there was only “unconscious bias” against Archie. Recollections really do vary. But now, directly or indirectly, in connivance with self-anointed royal expert Omid Scobie, the Montecito duo has apparently gone into full guillotine mode from a reputational standpoint. They are now seeking an “Endgame” to the House of Windsor. 

It is as if Harry and Meghan are producing their own Hollywood version of Survivor: Buckingham Palace. It might make for amusing scuttlebutt and binge-watching, were it not for the existential national security threats confronting both the U.S. and its closest strategic ally.

In terms that Mark Twain could best understand, the last thing the British monarchy needs now is a Montecito Yankee in King Charles’ Court. Harry and Meghan, alongside Scobie, are failing to read both the room and the world right now.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are conducting an ideological global war against the West. That dystopian World War III is already kinetic in Ukraine and the Middle East, and its expansion toward Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific looms.

Now is hardly the time for Hollywood-level narcissism, and certainly not of the type graphically on display in “Spare” and in Scobie’s two books — not when the geopolitical stakes and security interests are this high.  

King Charles finds himself at an inflection point. The danger to the kingdom is coming from Holland — specifically, a game-altering Dutch translation of Scobie’s “Endgame,” revealing (according to Piers Morgan) Charles and Catherine, Princess of Wales, as the purported royal racists referred to during the Winfrey primetime CBS interview.

In Twain’s classic 1889 novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” Harry Morgan, the American protagonist who has traveled back in time, quickly gains the trust of the mythical English king. In real life, however, Harry and his wife Meghan have repeatedly proven themselves unworthy of King Charles’s trust. Instead of burnishing Camelot, the Montecito pair appear hell-bent on burning it down.

The Tower of London is no longer an option for King Charles. Even if it were, the presence of the Crown Jewels might prove too tempting, turning Harry and Meghan into modern-day Jacobites. Still other options exist to resolve the ongoing trouble with Harry and Meghan, including stripping the prodigal son of his titles and formal constitutional ties to the British Royal Family. 

Harry, of course, will always be King Charles’ son. But the Duke of Sussex is no longer sufficiently trustworthy to be in the line of succession, especially when he, Meghan and others like Scobie (acting directly or indirectly on their behalf) are crassly undermining the sovereign on the world stage at every turn. 

Charles’ visit to the United Arab Emirates, which began on Thursday, is illustrative of the havoc that Harry and Meghan continue to create. The sovereign’s appearance at the COP28 summit on climate change centered around environmental issues that Charles has championed since his earliest days when he was the Prince of Wales.

“Endgame,” with its pernicious revelations — especially in the Dutch version now pulled off the bookshelves — is gravely undermining the very heart of Charles’ reign. It is also weakening Charles where he and the Royal Family are needed most: the 56-member Commonwealth of Nations. 

The Commonwealth is actively under economic and military assault by Russia and China in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Indo-Pacific. This absurd and needless drama is not about “Team Sussex” or “Team Wales.” It is about what is best for “Team UK,” and that means sidelining Harry and Meghan and their implied accusations of racism in the Royal Family, which are recklessly and foolishly giving Moscow and Beijing currency throughout the Commonwealth.

Harry has had ample opportunities to put king and country first — choices one would think easy, given that his father is king. Instead, he and Meghan have repeatedly put both last. They subjected even the late Queen Elizabeth II, to say nothing of the UK and its citizens, to an unending cascade of childish soap operas.

First came “Finding Freedom.” Then came Oprah, then Netflix, and then “Spare.” The UK was then subjected to Harry and Meghan’s coronation drama, and now Scobie’s dubious ode to the narcissistic Montecito couple. 

It is not just the UK’s present that is being wantonly assaulted by Scobie and company. It is also the kingdom’s future given the attack on Prince William and his wife. Fortunately for the House of Windsor, Scobie’s (concocted?) characterizations of both fail to meet the eye test. Both William and Catherine have performed admirably in public and in support of King Charles. Even so, Scobie’s malign words will undoubtedly soon appear in Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns across the Commonwealth.

Enough is enough. It is time for King Charles to implement a decisive endgame for Harry and Meghan, and to remove the recalcitrant Yankees’ constitutional royal titles. If they need to visit the United Kingdom in the future, book them an Airbnb.

Whitehall ought to put the national security interest of the UK first and relegate the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to the ash heap of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

Mark Toth, an economist and entrepreneur, is a former board member of the World Trade Center, St. Louis. Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as a military intelligence officer and led the U.S. European Command Intelligence Engagement Division from 2012 to 2014.