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Piers Morgan sensationally named the two so-called “royal racists” who allegedly speculated about the color of the then-unborn Prince Archie’s skin, after their names appeared in the Dutch version of Omid Scobie’s latest book about the British royals, Endgame.
Speaking on his Talk TV show in Britain Wednesday night, Morgan named the two senior royals at the end of a long monologue in which he pondered how their names ended up in the Dutch version of the book, but not in any other international editions. The names have been circulated widely online.
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“I’m going to cut through all this crap,” Morgan told viewers Wednesday night, saying he was going to name the royal family members, “because, frankly, if Dutch people wandering into a bookshop can pick it up and see these names, then you, British people, here—who actually pay for the British royal family—you’re entitled to know too. And then we can have a more open debate about this whole farrago. Because I don’t believe any racist comments were ever made by any of the royal family—and until there is actual evidence of those comments being made I will never believe it. But now we can start the process of finding out if they ever got uttered, what the context was, and whether there was any racial intent at all. Like I say, I don’t believe there was. The royals named in this book are…”
Morgan then named the royal family members, which The Daily Beast is so far opting not to name. Buckingham Palace has been approached for comment, and is yet to respond. Late Wednesday, the Mirror reported that the royals were reportedly taking legal advice and “considering all options,” including taking legal action. The royals were also feeling “utter dismay” after the wide online circulation of the two names, the Mirror reported.
Morgan said he did not believe the “ugly smear” of the racism claims, and had not seen any evidence they were true. For a long time, he has been among the fiercest of Harry and Meghan’s public critics. In 2021, he said he had lost his job at British morning show Good Morning Britain “because I chose not to apologize for disbelieving Meghan Markle’s claims in her interview with Oprah Winfrey.”
Scobie has attributed the inclusion of the two names in the Dutch edition to “translation errors,” but as Morgan and many others have asked—how do you mis-translate names? The Dutch publishers simply said it was down to an “error” that was being “rectified.”
“I can’t believe that it was a translation error,” Rick Evers, the Dutch journalist who spotted the names, said on British TV show Good Morning Britain. “We saw some passages were missing in the English version. Like, five sentences between the first and third part that wasn’t in the English version. So, something has been erased during the work that has been done for the book.”
The presence of the “royal racist” first emerged when Meghan Markle told Oprah Winfrey about a senior family member who had had “concerns and conversations” about her unborn baby’s skin color during her and Prince Harry’s bombshell 2021 interview. Scobie’s new book then made clear there had been a second family member involved in the conversations. Scobie said U.K. libel laws prevented him from naming them, but later said he may do so in the future.
Unanswered as yet: did the Dutch publishers of Endgame somehow receive a non-final draft of the book in error, either from Scobie or his editors, or British publishing team? How did the very specific naming of the two royals happen—and have they been accurately named? Will Meghan and Harry confirm the names are correct, and how will the palace respond to their naming, and the allegations of what they said?
Scobie will be questioned about the situation directly on Thursday’s top-rated ITV daytime show, This Morning, whose presenters may also want to ask directly whether the two names mentioned in the Dutch version—and now by Morgan on air—are correct.
