I am so pleased to write a review of Finding Freedom (or should I say I finally found freedom from this book! JK!).

The only news that could upstage Covid19 and the universal quarantine was the announcement that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be stepping back as senior members of the Royal Family.

In a new book, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, the couple’s time together is told in great detail.

The book by Omid Scobie takes places starting from the year 2016 (when they met) to the nearly present day (March 2020).

If you follow My Stiletto Life: you likely know that I am a royalist at heart and voraciously consume all knowledge and tidbits about them.

So when I casually saw Finding Freedom at an Amazon book store: I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read it. As I read the book, rather quickly: nearly everything I read I already knew in some way. Their every move has been reported by the tabloids or announced by Buckingham Palace itself, so there wasn’t a lot of surprise. I did enjoy reading it from authors: Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s perspectives. (Both of whom have followed Prince Harry and Megan on several press tours.)

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Here is my review of Finding Freedom + Key Takeaways

How Meghan and Harry Met

Harry and Meghan have claimed to have met via a friend.

One that, to this day, they have been extremely elusive about whom this friend actually is (does he/she exist?). The book, also had no conclusive details on whom the actual friend is — just speculation, which I found odd. Why is it such a secret? My personal opinion: I think Meghan asked her publicist to set her up with Harry, no shame in that, but I think she knew she wanted to meet him and had connections to do so. However, it’s strange to me that they are still pedaling this “meeting through a mutual friend.”

Meghan also claimed in their first interview as an engaged couple that she really didn’t know or understand the scope of interest in the royal family or much about Prince Harry at all — she almost goes as far to act like she didn’t even know who he was. Something that has been contradicted by photos of her in front of Buckingham Palace when she was a teen and from friends who say she knew who the royals were.

Their relationship moved quickly

Hey: if you are lucky enough to be dating a real-life prince, I’d move to seal the deal quickly too! They were both in their mid thirties at the time they met, Megan already married once and seemed to know what they both wanted.

I admire that: taking the bull by the horns and going for it.

They met in the summer of 2016 and were effectively a very serious couple within a few months: going to Africa together and Harry secretly traveling to Toronto to visit her.

Wedding Drama

As most people saw, the issues with Meghan’s family play out in the tabloids: much of it happens to be true. Meghan’s father was cooperative with the tabloids and ultimately didn’t come to her wedding.

Even a dust up between Kate Middleton and Meghan at a fitting for Princess Charlotte’s flower girl dress, is true.

Perhaps, not as salacious as the rumors led it to believe: but the women did butt heads.

Pregnant with Archie

This factoid was something I actually had never read: when Meghan was pregnant with baby Archie, she went to New Zealand with Harry on an official Royal tour — NZ is a country where the risk of Zika (especially at the time) was very real. Seems odd that she would embark on that trip, pregnant and running the risk. They did say that she was always covered in bug repellent. However there are many conspiracies online that say she didn’t even carry the child herself — not saying I agree with that, but do think it’s odd they would travel somewhere where a virus is a real threat to a pregnant woman.

The Real Rift

Many initially thought that the reason there was a divide in households was because Meghan and Kate didn’t get along. In fact, they were friendly but its true: they never forged a genuine friendship. Kate certainly didn’t go out of her way to connect with Meghan.

However, the real reason for the split between the two couples was that the brothers were at odds.

Prince William felt his brother had moved too quickly with Meghan and felt he was pulling away from the royal protocol. Prince William, being in line to the thrown, clearly gives him a very different path than Harry and William stuck to the more conventional route the royal family had always taken. Harry wanted his path to be different. So as time went on, they started to really drift apart. The tension between them is palpable at the last royal engagement that Meghan and Harry attendant at Westminster Abbey.

The Term “North America”

I believe that Harry and Meghan always intended to move back to Southern California — being Meghan’s home. When they made plans to extricate themselves from the royal family — they very calculatedly and conspicuously mentioned they had plans to split there time between “London and North America.” Well at the time: “North America” meant Canada. However, once COVID19 threatened to close the borders: they sped up their plans and moved to LA and eventually Montecito: a very wealthy part of Santa Barbara.

There you have it: my review of Finding Freedom.

Of course there was a lot more to the book and it’s for sure worth a read.

I will say: despite all the criticism they have garnered as a couple, I really admire Harry doing what he felt was right for his immediate family: wife and child.

Not what his greater family felt was right. To me, that shows real love and support, perhaps the kind his mother, Princess Diana never had. (And if you binged watched Netflix’s The Crown these past few weeks, you can understand ever more how real that was.) In that way, he’s an example of how a man or woman should value their partner over their parents or a sibling. Of course, in this case: it’s much more complicated than the average couple.

Get the book and ones like it for yourself or as a gift and of course let me know your thoughts in the comment below!