Meghan Markle and Prince Harry 'Need to Establish What Their Purpose Is,' Author Says (Exclusive)

"When I spoke to people in their orbit, they admit that it hadn’t quite gone to plan," says Omid Scobie, author of the new book 'Endgame'

As Prince William and Kate Middleton have moved further into their roles as future king and queen, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have moved into an uncertain future.

“When I spoke to people in their orbit, they admit that it hadn’t quite gone to plan,” author Omid Scobie, whose new book Endgame is out Nov. 28, tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “They really need to establish what their purpose is.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have experienced growing pains finding a path to success in their next chapter. In January 2020, Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, announced their intention to "step back as senior members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent" before moving to Meghan’s home state of California months later.

In April 2020, they launched their nonprofit, Archewell. The Archewell Foundation website went live that October within the larger Archewell organization, which currently includes the business verticals Archewell Productions and Archewell Audio.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex went on to ink multimillion-dollar deals with Spotify and Netflix, delivering Meghan’s hit podcast Archetypes in August 2022 and the record-breaking Netflix series Harry & Meghan last December. Harry's memoir Spare, published by Penguin Random House, also became a bestseller. Over the summer, however, the Sussexes split from Spotify, where they had a reported $20 million deal, and have been criticized by The Wall Street Journal for low content output on Netflix (where their deal is valued at $100 million).

Related: Meghan Markle 'Doesn't Want Anything to Do' with the Royals (Exclusive)

During a surprise appearance at Variety's Power of Women event on Thursday, Meghan hinted at future projects in the works.

"We have so many exciting things on the slate," she told Variety on the red carpet. "I can't wait until we can announce them. We're just really proud of what we're creating, and my husband is loving it too."

As Harry and Meghan forge a new life in the United States, William and Kate remain focused on their destiny ahead in the U.K. The last time the two couples appeared together — after Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022 — "it showed that all four are capable of switching it on and doing what’s right in the moment," says Scobie, who has covered the royal family for more than a decade.

Later, he says, “The first question I had to sources was, ‘Do you think that this will lead to something else?’ ” The answer: “a firm no.”

In the bombshell new book, Scobie reveals the depth of the damage between the royal brothers — and why their broken bond is a threat to the monarchy’s future.

Prince Harry laid bare the painful rift between himself and his family in the pages of his memoir Spare, released last January, and the world learned the extent of the division between Harry, 39, and Prince William, 41.

Nearly a year after Spare’s publication, “absolutely nothing has changed,” says Scobie.

The hurt and anger between the two brothers — one, the Prince of Wales and future monarch and the other, the Duke of Sussex and Californian — has now hardened into something colder and more immovable, says Scobie: indifference.

“I saw Harry’s release of Spare as his last attempt at telling his family how he’s felt for years,” says Scobie, who chronicles both the breakdown of the royal family and the weakening of the modern monarchy in Endgame. “Because clearly there’s never been an open enough forum to have these conversations or share these feelings.”

In the months that followed their grandmother’s funeral, the division between the brothers widened following the release of Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries and the Duke of Sussex's revealing memoir.

And while King Charles and Prince Harry are still speaking (the Duke and Duchess of Sussex called Charles to wish him a happy birthday on Tuesday), Harry “is in the rearview mirror” for William.

Related: Prince Harry and Prince William's Relationship Is Beyond Repair: 'There's No Going Back' (Exclusive)

“William’s so far forward in his journey that what is important today is very different to what was important 10 years ago,” says Scobie. “You really feel this when you talk to people working at the palace, that they really consider what Harry and Meghan, but mostly Harry, say as just irritating noise. The feelings of this man are not worth anything anymore. That’s sort of typical of any big corporation. I know it’s different because they’re family. But as we’ve known for a long time, the meaning of family is very different to them.”

While Meghan has “moved on” from the royals, Harry “still has unfinished business,” Scobie says.

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“Quite early on in the [book-writing] process, some of those Meghan sources that I really leant on in the earlier years this time were like, ‘You know what? She doesn’t want anything to do with it,’ ” says Scobie.

“For Harry it’s different. He still has unfinished business when it comes to his battles with the press,” the author adds. “His challenge will be to find something that balances that out so we can see him working in a space that isn’t connected to the ties that bind from the past.”

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