Royals Under Fire

AS A NEW ROYAL TELL-ALL HITS SHELVES, KING CHARLES III IS FACING FRESH ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM.

IN March 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sat down for an explosive TV interview during which they recounted their experiences behind palace doors. The most shocking revelation came when Meghan, who is biracial, claimed that there had been "concerns and conversations" while she was pregnant with son Archie, now 4, "about how dark his skin might be when he was born." In the weeks that followed, the royal family went on the defensive, with a usually tight-lipped Prince William telling a reporter "we are very much not a racist family" and Buckingham Palace releasing a statement saying the royals were taking the issues raised by Meghan and Harry "particularly that of race... very seriously."

In the ensuing years, there has been endless speculation about the identity of the person who made the comments. Then, in late November, a Dutch journalist claimed the royal in question had been named (as well as another person who was involved in the conversation) in the Dutch version of Omid Scobie's new royal tell-all, Endgame. A photo reportedly of the passage in question included the name "Charles." In response, the Dutch publishers swiftly pulled the book from shelves in the Netherlands saying in part, "Xander Uitgevers is temporarily withdrawing the book Eindstrijd by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified." Meanwhile, the author insisted that he'd "never submitted a book that had their names in it," as speculation grew that the error hadn't been a mistranslation after all. (In the English version of the tome, Scobie explained that he wouldn't reveal the identity in question because of libel laws.)