Royal Book Recalled After 'Error' Names King Charles And Kate Middleton In Racist Incident
The two-year mystery over which royal family member made racist remarks before the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first child may have been solved.
The Sussexes refused to identify who had “concerns” about Prince Archie’s skin tone when the revelation about bigotry at Buckingham Palace came to light in a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
And while reporter Omid Scobie followed their lead in his new book, “Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival,” a Dutch translation of the deep-dive names both King Charles III and Kate Middleton in its version.
In the English edition of “Endgame,” Scobie details letters between Markle and the king written in the aftermath of the incident, without attributing the comments.
Despite Scobie’s deliberate omission, the Dutch translation ended up naming the king and Prince William’s wife in what the author called a “translation error.”
Dutch publisher Xander promptly pulped its version at the behest of Scobie, citing an unspecified “mistake” in the text.
The author, who is close to sources in the Sussex camp, was forced to defend himself against accusations he leaked the names.
The Dutch translation of a new book about the royal family names King Charles III and Kate Middleton as the royal family members who once raised "concerns" about the skin tone of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's children.
“I have never submitted a book that had their names in it,” he said during an appearance Thursday on ITV’s “This Morning,” adding that the origin of the misprint is “still being investigated.”
“I wrote and edited the English version of the book with one publisher,” Scobie explained. “That then gets licensed to other publishers. I obviously can’t speak Italian, German, French, Dutch or any of the other languages. So the only time you hear about the book is once it’s come out in the public domain.”
Neither confirming nor denying the identities of those involved, the royal editor-at-large for Harper’s Bazaar said, “The reality is, though, that this is information that is not privy just to me.”
“Journalists across Fleet Street have known those names for a long time. We’ve all followed a sort of code of conduct when it comes to talking about it.”
Though most of the British media initially refused to disclose the names while reporting on the “Endgame” error, citing Britain’s strict libel laws, on Wednesday TV personality and journalist Piers Morgan broadcast the names in what he called an effort to exonerate the king and Catherine, Princess of Wales, from accusations of racism.
On Thursday afternoon, The Guardian became the first British newspaper to publish the names, which were already widely circulating on the internet.
A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace did not respond to the accusations in a statement to The Guardian, saying, “It is not something we are going to comment on.”
During the Sussexes’ 2021 interview with Winfrey, Prince Harry revealed that he and Markle left the United Kingdom in “large part” because of the discrimination they faced. They now live in California.
Earlier this year, he called the comments about Archie’s complexion a case of “unconscious bias” rather than outright racism, however.
