Friends of senior royals say the family is expected to “quietly forget” veiled threats to take legal action after a book by reporter Omid Scobie named King Charles and Kate Middleton as the so-called “royal racists” whom Meghan Markle—in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021—alleged raised “concerns” over the skin color of her son Archie before he was born.
Despite the palace initially saying they would keep “all options open” in regard to the book, Endgame, an early Dutch version of which named Kate and Charles in error, almost three weeks after publication, there is no evidence of legal action against either Scobie, his agents, the Dutch publishers or news outlets which repeated the claims.
“The king has bigger fish to fry,” a friend told The Daily Beast. “It’s only a book. It’s a classic case of ‘Don’t explain or complain’ and let it blow over. They will just quietly forget it now. I don’t think there are going to be any lawsuits being filed.”
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Asked if the claims in the book about Charles and Kate were accurate, the friend said: “I think anyone who knows Charles knows he is not a racist.”
When it was pointed out that Meghan and Prince Harry have been careful not use the word ‘racist,’ with Harry saying in a TV interview, for example, that the alleged remarks were instead an example of “unconscious bias,” the friend said: “Good, because he is not. But if there are these nuances, then you just wonder whether the appropriate place to raise the issue was with Oprah.”
A former courtier told The Daily Beast they would be “astonished” if Charles pursued legal action, adding, “This is over. The book has been pulped. Nobody cares.”
A friend of William and Kate similarly said they understood there will be no formal legal action against the claims made in the book. “Every day of the week people write acres of nonsense about them, and the reaction is always the same; don’t dignify it with a response, just keep on doing the job and let actions speak louder than words.”
An early draft of the book was apparently sent in error to its Dutch publishers, leading to the publication of the names which Scobie, in other editions, said he was required to keep secret for legal reasons.
The offices of Charles and Kate have been contacted seeking comment, as has author Omid Scobie.
