Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with their newborn son Archie at Windsor Castle on May 8, 2019 (Dominic Lipinski/Pool via AP)
The two relatives who allegedly made racist comments about the skin color of Harry and Meghan’s son were incorrectly identified
The Dutch translation of “Endgame,” a book about British royalty by Omid Scobie, caused an uproar in the United Kingdom because it incorrectly included the names of two people in the family who allegedly made racist comments about the color of Archie’s first child’s skin Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had before he was born. The Dutch version of the book was immediately withdrawn from Dutch bookstores, officially due to an unspecified “error,” but the problem has since been widely reported in English newspapers and commented on on social media.
The names of the two royals were not initially mentioned by British newspapers and tabloids, which are known to have an unwritten agreement with the royal family to treat scandals involving them with a certain sobriety. The reason for the reluctance may also be that it is not clear how the two names ended up in the Dutch edition, since the author and the publisher claim that they were not included in the original; So it is currently an accusation without evidence and not even supported by the author of the book. But then famous presenter Piers Morgan, known for not feeling sorry for Meghan, identified them on his show and revealed that they were not two marginal members of the family, but King Charles III. and Kate, Princess of Wales and wife of William. Harry’s brother and first heir to the throne.
From that moment on, several British newspapers, including the Guardian, spoke explicitly about them, while other publications, such as the BBC, continued to not identify the two people.
In a famous interview the couple gave with US presenter Oprah Winfrey in early 2021, Markle said that when she was pregnant with Archie, a member of the royal family had shown concerns about the baby’s skin color. She is the daughter of a white man and a black woman. Although Markle did not name any names, the episode was widely commented on and often cited as alleged evidence of widespread racism in the royal family.
The original English version published by HarperCollins also does not mention any names, but does refer to two people who allegedly made the comments. The Dutch edition, like the Italian one by Solferino, appeared on Tuesday. Following his withdrawal, Dutch publisher Xander stated that the error cited by Scobie would be corrected in time to put the book back on sale from December 8th. In the meantime, however, the Dutch journalist Rick Evers noticed and reported on X (Twitter) a passage from the book in which the name of King Charles III. is mentioned in connection with the alleged comments. Other less specific references, cited by both Evers and other Dutch readers, seemed to indicate that Kate was the second person to make racist comments.
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— Rick Evers (@RickEversRoyal) November 28, 2023
Although the English newspapers had not adopted the names contained in the Dutch version, the two members were identified as people of “high status” and the news had attracted widespread attention. The Daily Mirror, for example, had the headline: “Book names ‘racist royals'”, while the Chron quoted: “Scobie’s book withdrawn because he accidentally named ‘racist royals'”. Then Morgan, known for his right-wing positions, said on Wednesday evening that those who pay the taxes that support the royal family have a right to know what the Dutch readers knew, and therefore had Charles and Kate identified. However, he added that in his opinion “none of the members of the royal family made racist comments.”
Harry and Meghan behind Charles and his wife Camilla during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom at Westminster Abbey on September 19, 2022 (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
The alleged racism of the royal family and part of the British press was among the reasons why Harry and Meghan decided at the beginning of 2020 to no longer be an active part of the monarchy and to leave the United Kingdom. From that moment on, relations with the rest of the royal family had cooled significantly, as Harry recounted in both the hugely successful autobiography “Spare” and the Netflix documentary “Harry & Meghan” alongside his wife. However, there is no detailed discussion of the racism allegations in either the book or the series (it had already been made clear at the time of the interview with Winfrey that they did not concern Queen Elizabeth II or her husband, Prince Philip).
In an interview with Dutch television, Scobie said he had not identified the members of the royal family accused in his book and had no idea how they ended up in the Dutch translation. Saskia Peeters, the book’s translator, told the Chron that she did not add any names and clarified that “as a translator” she only “translates what she sees in front of her on the pages.”
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace, the royal residence, told the Guardian he did not want to comment on the matter, and the Princes of Wales, William and Kate, also did not comment.
Meghan was photographed behind Kate during a religious ceremony at Westminster Abbey on March 11, 2019 (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, Pool)
Anke Roelen, Xander’s chief operating officer, said the publisher would try to figure out how the names got into the book. He then emphasized that the creation was an “extremely precise process that took months” and therefore urged us to be “cautious in jumping to conclusions.” However, some translators and industry experts have now expressed doubts about the possibility that the Dutch translator added names on her own initiative.
According to literary agent Willem Bisseling, the most plausible hypothesis is that Peeters worked on an earlier draft of the manuscript in English, but adds: “It is only one [sua] Assumption”. However, some claim that Scobie intentionally inserted the names in an early version of the book, as Evers also suspected in another post to X. “The question,” says Evers, is whether he did it “negligently or intentionally.” Some experts seem to support the latter theory, accusing Scobie of misbehaving and promoting. Additionally, Scobie had previously written a book about Harry and Meghan and was believed to have a benevolent attitude towards them.
However, Daniel Taylor, media lawyer at Taylor Hampton law firm in London, recalled that both the author of a book and the publisher that publishes it risk being accused of libel if they accuse a person of racist attitudes without evidence. For the same reason, most British newspapers and media are reluctant to specifically mention Charles and Kate. The other plausible reason, however, is the enormous influence that the British royal family exerts on the local press. The first English newspaper to explicitly mention the names on its website on Thursday afternoon was the Guardian, which is known to be critical of the monarchy.
– Also read: Prince Harry’s autobiography, according to whoever wrote it
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