New royal book pulled from shelves over huge legal blunder
Copies of an explosive new book about the royal family are being pulled from shelves and destroyed after a translation error "accidentally named" the alleged "royal racist".
Sales of the new book Endgame, written by Omid Scobie who also wrote Finding Freedom about Harry and Meghan's exit from the royal family, were "temporarily" put on hold just days after its release after what has been labelled an error.
According to Xander, the publishers of the Dutch edition of Scobie's book, a translation error led to a member of the royal family being identified as the person who made comments about baby Archie's skin colour.
“[We are] temporarily withdrawing the book by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, The Sun claims that thousands of copies of the book are now being destroyed as a result.
The "racist royal" scandal dates back to when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat down with Oprah Winfrey for a tell-all interview in 2021, when Markle alleged that while she was pregnant with their first child, Prince Archie, there were “concerns and conversations” from a member of the royal family about how dark his skin might be.
The Duchess of Sussex stopped short of naming the person involved, telling Winfrey, “I think that would be very damaging to them.”
In the original edition of his book, Scobie also declines to identify the royal, claiming libel laws prevented him from doing so – although he has confirmed he knows who it is.
“I do know who made the comments about Archie’s skin colour,” he told UK program Good Morning during his book press tour.
“The names were mentioned in letters between Meghan and Charles that were exchanged sometime after the Oprah interview."
“We know from sources that Charles was horrified that that’s how Meghan felt. Those conversations were, and that he wanted to, sort of as a representative for the family, have that conversation with her.
“And it is why I personally think they have been able to move forward with some kind of line of communication afterwards. Though they may not see eye-to-eye on it.”
It’s understood the royal family member accidentally named in the Dutch edition was not the person Meghan had been referring to.
Image credits: Getty Images / Harper Collins