28 November 2023 , 17:37
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The royal race row intensified today as copies of a controversial book on the monarchy were pulled in Holland after it appeared to name the “royal racist”.
In his book Endgame, released around the world today, royal author Omid Scobie revealed there were in fact two royals who made derogatory remarks about the colour of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s unborn son, Archie.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had in 2021 sent shockwaves through the royal family when they accused an unnamed senior royal of expressing “concern” about their child’s complexion in a bombshell interview with US chat show queen Oprah Winfrey.
Mr Scobie, often referred to as a friend of the Sussexes after his previous biography of the couple 'Finding Freedom’, said in interviews this week that UK law prevented him from revealing the names of the royals detailed in private letters from Meghan to King Charles.
Omid Scobie on 'This Morning' (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
The shocking new book 'Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival'A page taken from a review copy of the book sent to Dutch journalists appeared to contain the identity of the royal who allegedly made the remarks.
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Referring to the letters written between Meghan and the King discussing the issue, the Dutch version of the book reads: “But in those private letters and identity was revealed and confirmed."
Another entire passage which appears in the Dutch version of Endgame appears to reveal the names of the two royals at the centre of Meghan’s racism allegations, which is mysteriously missing from the English version.
Alongside details of Meghan’s letter to the King, the Dutch version reads “it was revealed that XXX and XXX took part in such conversations about Archie”. The Mirror has chosen not to publish the name of the person in question.
A Dutch journalist who spotted the passage said on his X (formerly Twitter ) profile: “NL (Netherlands) version 'Endgame' must be withdrawn from sale, says Dutch publisher at request of the US agent. "A number of passages have sparked debate, may not have been accurately presented. This seems to concern also the accusation against XXX (name redacted), about Archie's skin color (sic).”
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He added in a further tweet which contained a translation in English of the Dutch copy of the book: “This is - as far as I know - only regarding the Dutch version, not the English one. It seems as if only the Dutch version has published the person's name who spoke about the skin color (sic)of the unborn child. XXX (name redacted).”
Again, The Mirror has not published the name of the person.
Buckingham Palace did not respond for comment. Xander, the publishers of the Dutch translation of Omid Scobie's Endgame, have put sales of the book on hold "temporarily" over what it calls an "error". They said in a statement: "[We are] temporarily withdrawing the book by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified."
Scobie himself has denied responsibility for the error, telling Dutch chat show RTL Boulevard: "The book is in several languages, and unfortunately I do not speak Dutch. But if there are translation errors, I'm sure the publishers will have it under control. I wrote and edited the English version. There's never been no version that I've produced that has names in it."
In the English version of Scobie’s book, no name or names of members of the royal family who may have made the comments are published, although the author reveals for the first time how letters between Meghan and the King were exchanged.
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It reads: “When speaking with Oprah, both Harry and Meghan chose to refrain from sharing who was involved in this exchange. (A representative for the couple would only go on to clarify that it was not the Queen nor Prince Philip.) “I think that would be very damaging to them,” Meghan said.
“But in the pages of these private letters, two identities were revealed. Laws in the United Kingdom prevent me from reporting who they were.”
The book goes on to detail the King’s response to Meghan and how he wanted to make clear to “ there was no ill will or casual prejudice present when the two people had spoken about his future grandson.”