Endgame's Omid Scobie Denies Naming Anyone Who Allegedly Speculated on Archie's Skin Color

Omid Scobie is not naming names.

In the British journalist's new book about the UK monarchy, Endgame, he writes that Meghan Markle and father-in-law King Charles III exchanged letters about her allegations about alleged racism in his family, which she first made to Oprah Winfrey in a bombshell 2021 interview, during which she said someone in the royal household raised "concerns" about the potential skin color of her and husband Prince Harry's then-unborn first child, Prince Archie. 

Scobie reveals in the original UK version of his book that the Duchess of Sussex complained about two people who allegedly made such comments, without specifying who, the Telegraph reported. But a Dutch-language version of Endgame does name two members of the royal family allegedly involved in such discourse, the outlet said, and its publisher Xander Uitgevers has now pulled its copies of the publication temporarily, telling NBC News, "An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified."

In a Nov. 28 video interview, Scobie himself told Dutch media network RTL Nederland in response to the controversy, "The book is available in a number of languages, unfortunately I can't speak Dutch, so, I haven't seen the copy for myself. But if there have been any translation errors, I am sure the publishers have got it under control."

He continued, "For me, I edited and wrote the English version. There has never been a version that I produced that has names in it."

The publisher did not specify which error needs to be fixed. NBC News, which has not independently verified the Dutch version of Endgame, has reached out to Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and the Sussexes for comment, but has not heard back.

In Endgame, Scobie quotes sources as saying that in his written correspondence with Meghan, Charles wanted to make clear that he didn't feel the remarks regarding skin color were made with "ill will" or "casual prejudice," and that she tried to explain how the alleged conversations were an example of a "lingering unconscious bias and ignorance" that needed to be addressed. 

During the Oprah interview, Meghan, then pregnant with daughter Princess Lilibet, now 2, said that before she and Harry had Archie, the royal family had "concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born." Her husband told the TV mogul, "That conversation I am never going to share, but at the time it was awkward. I was a bit shocked."

Days later, Buckingham Palace responded to the backlash over the Sussex's interview. "The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan," they said in a statement. "The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members."

In addition, Harry's brother Prince William told a reporter at the time, "We are very much not a racist family."

Meanwhile, soon after the interview with Oprah aired, public speculation about who made the alleged skin color comment mounted. The TV mogul herself later told her friend Gayle King in a CBS interview that Harry told her that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, who both passed away in 2022 and 2021 respectively, were not part of those conversations.

And in April, when a Telegraph report cited the letters as a possible reason for Meghan to skip Charles' coronation, her rep addressed the speculation.

"The Duchess of Sussex is going about her life in the present, not thinking about correspondence from two years ago related to conversations from four years ago," her spokesperson told E! News at the time. "Any suggestion otherwise is false and frankly ridiculous."

(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

Read on for more bombshells from Scobie's new book Endgame:

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