Omid Scobie skipped queue to view Queens coffin – in echo of Holly and Phils Queuegate drama
Omid Scobie has admitted that he was among a "small group of journalists" who skipped the queue at the late Queen's lying-in-state.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her coffin was laid in Westminster Hall, with members of the public queuing for hours to pay their respects.
Controversy was then sparked when This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby appeared to jump the queue when they entered the hall.
At the time the pair, who have both since left the show, released an on-air statement, with Holly telling viewers: "Like hundreds of accredited broadcasters and journalists, we were given official permission to access the hall."
He statement continued: "The rules were that we would be quickly escorted around the edges to a platform at the back. In contrast, those paying respects walked along a carpeted area beside the coffin and were given time to pause.
"None of the broadcasters and journalists there took anyone’s place in the queue and no one filed past the Queen.
"We, of course, respected those rules, however, we realise that it may have looked like something else and therefore totally understand the reaction. Please know that we would never jump a queue."
Recalling a similar experience in his new book, Endgame, Omid wrote: "The full reality of Queen Elizabeth II's death hit me ten days later when I joined a small group of journalists to observe the scene of the former monarch lying in state at Westminster Hall.
"Members of the public had queued for up to ten miles and over twenty-four hours to pay their respects.
"For those of us in the press working eighteen-hour shifts, reporting to millions of others around the world, British Parliament's 'Operation Marquee' team had arranged pre-booked one-hour time slots in Westminster so we could capture this moment in history."
Alongside discussion of the Queen's death and subsequent coronation of King Charles III, Omid's book contains a number of royal bombshells, with him taking aim at the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Omid, who previously wrote Finding Freedom, a book that followed Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's exit from the Royal Family, claimed that Kate Middleton "shudders and giggles" whenever she hears Meghan's name.
The new book also details the falling out between Harry and his older brother Prince William, with Omid claiming that once Meghan came onto the scene "William shifted away from acting like a brother and became more like someone only focused [on the Crown]."
And it's not just William and Kate the book is rather critical of, Omid also writes that the Princess Royal was a vocal supporter of the decision to evict Harry and Meghan from their Frogmore Cottage home on the Windsor Estate.
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