Although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey in the bombshell March 2021 interview that they would never name the members of the royal household who allegedly made comments about their unborn son Archie’s skin color, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t discussed within the royal family.
According to Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, which came out on November 28th, as per The Sun, Meghan talked about the members of the household who made the alleged racist remarks in letters to King Charles in the spring of 2021. In those letters, the former Suits actress reportedly told her father-in-law that “unconscious bias and ignorance” were at play within the royal household, and needed to be addressed. The Sun also reported that King Charles replied to his daughter-in-law via letter, and told her “he felt ‘no ill will’ or ‘casual prejudice’ had been involved.”
This echoed the statement Buckingham Palace released following Harry and Meghan’s original remarks on Oprah. The Palace said at the time: “The issues raised, particularly of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”
Names Of Two Alleged 'Royal Racists' Reportedly Published In Dutch Version Of 'Endgame'
Scobie confirmed in an interview that aired on Monday, November 27th on Good Morning America that he does "know who made the comments about Archie's skin color," but reportedly never intended to reveal it in his book. "The names were mentioned in letters between Meghan and Charles that were exchanged sometime after the Oprah interview," he added.
Although Scobie was reportedly very careful to omit the names of the alleged (we can't mention that everything is alleged enough!) 'royal racists' from his book – he even went as far as swearing on his and his family's lives that he didn't publish the names on the version he signed off on – two names have reportedly been published in the Dutch translation, which has understandably sent the world into a frenzy. Whether the allegations are true, of course, is another story.
Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Two's Newsnight, Scobie was asked whether the alleged names appearing in the book's Dutch translation was a PR stunt, and he vehemently denied it. He said: "On my life, on my family's life." Derbyshire then said: "You don't have to go that far, it's fine."
Scobie then said: "No it's serious because I feel hurt by some of the things I've seen that have suggested a conspiracy theory, that this is some kind of publicity stunt, and 'I'm in cahoots with my pal [Meghan]' and nonsense like that because it feeds into something that couldn't be further from the truth." Derbyshire replied: "In some version you must have written the names in and the wrong version has potentially gone to the people in charge of the rights around the world, I suppose."
According to The Telegraph, sources close to the Duchess of Sussex have insisted that she never intended the members of the royal household who made the alleged racist comments to be publicly identified. The sources also insist that her private letter to the King was not leaked to Scobie by anyone in her or Prince Harry's team. We don't know who or what to believe!
Royal Family Insiders Address The 'Unproven' Claims
Piers Morgan named the two members of the royal family whose names were mentioned in the Dutch version of Endgame on his TalkTV show on Wednesday, November 29th, after which many outlets from The Guardian to The New York Post to The New York Times, among many others, followed suit.
Sources close to the royal family said there was no basis to the claims. TalkTV host Jeremy Kyle addressed the allegations too, and told Tom Tugendhat, Minister of State for Security, on Thursday, November 30th: "King Charles and the Princess of Wales were named by Piers Morgan last night. Online, this is everywhere."
Tugendhat replied: "Some individual has written some rumor and scuttlebutt that has made various claims about His Majesty the King that are, frankly, completely unproven. The King's done a brilliant job for us – not just in the last year since he's been King, but he's been absolutely fantastic for many, many years in arguing in the interests of the British people as Prince of Wales. So frankly I see this as just rumor, hearsay and an attempt to disparage somebody who's served our country with enormous dignity and enormous grace for many, many years."
