Due to a Dutch publishing snafu, the names of the alleged racist comment makers in the Royal Family broke big. Earlier this week, there was talk about how Omid Scobie’s book Endgame referenced two people Meghan Markle allegedly named in a letter to King Charles about people who were reportedly making comments about the color of her and Prince Harry’s son’s skin color. Now, due to this translation mistake, there are names attached to these comments.
Obviously, the names are not confirmed, and in the other translations of the book, the people Meghan Markle was allegedly referring to are not specified. They are simply named as members of the Royal Household. This Dutch version of the book names King Charles and Kate Middleton as the two who made the comments the Duchess of Sussex spoke about during her and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021. When the news broke, it spread like wildfire and quickly went viral.
According to the Dutch translator of the book, the manuscript she was given named the two high-profile royals. Saskia Peeters told The Daily Mail that she didn’t add the names herself, saying:
As a translator, I translate what is in front of me. The names of the royals were there in black and white. I did not add them. I just did what I was paid to do and that was translate the book from English.
Based on this comment, the publication said this suggests that the Dutch publisher was sent a draft of Endgame that wasn’t the final one.
Also, when Scobie was promoting the book early on, he made a point of saying that he did not name the two royals who made the alleged comments about Prince Harry and Markle’s son Archie, per The Guardian.
The last week has been a wild one for Omid Scobie as claims from his book about these letters and his opinion on the rumors that Prince William had an affair have gone viral. Now, The Guardian has asked him about this Dutch publishing problem, and he said:
To be honest, I’ve been operating a bubble of no emotion for the last 10 days.
When the author appeared on Newsnight he said there was a “full investigation” in the works about this massive issue with the Dutch translation of his book. He made it very clear in the interview as well that he “didn’t have names in it.” Continuing to speak about the issue, the writer told Newsnight:
All of this is frustrating because it feeds into something that couldn't be further from the truth. And also, quite frankly, I've always felt the names weren't needed to have this discussion.
Back when the initial Oprah interview came out, Prince William responded to the accusations of racism. He denied them, saying “We are very much not a racist family.” At the moment, the palace has not released a statement about Endgame and this Dutch translation.
Much like when the accusations in Prince Harry’s Spare went viral earlier this year, this has caused quite a stir, and many are waiting to see if the Royal Family comments. As this situation develops, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
