The Dutch edition of Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame has caused controversy after it mistakenly identified King Charles and Catherine, the Princess of Wales as being involved in a race row. The Dutch publisher has offered very little explanation for the mistake, leading some to speculate that legal concerns may be preventing them from speaking out. Prince Harry and Meghan, who were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey about their experiences with the Royal Family in 2021, have not commented on the situation, although it is understood that they are strongly denying any suggestion that they provided Scobie with the private letters that supposedly identified the two Royals.
Buckingham Palace has said that “all options are open” with regards to how they respond to the situation, although it is unclear how they could publicly respond to a book that has already been pulped due to the mistake. The controversy has arisen due to the sensitive subject matter of race and perceived racism within the Royal Family. This dates back to the Oprah Winfrey interview where questions were raised about the skin colour of Prince Harry and Meghan’s baby. Although Prince Harry later clarified that it was about “unconscious bias”, rather than racism, the issue still left questions unanswered and a general sense of unease.
The situation has been made worse by the fact that it is not entirely clear what happened in the conversations surrounding the skin colour of Prince Harry and Meghan’s baby. The couple have said that they do not want to disclose who was involved, with Meghan stating that to do so would be “very damaging to them”. Scobie has said that he never included any names in his manuscript and if that is the case, it is not the result of a prior draft that was meant to have been changed.
Although the controversy surrounding the Dutch version of Endgame has now been pulped, the issue has already spread through social media. The old royal approach to difficult news stories of “never explain, never complain”becomes ever harder to maintain as the impact of social media causes these stories to spread even further. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the situation and the names that were supposedly included in the manuscript. If it transpires that the accusation was false, it could fundamentally change the story
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