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Dutch versions of author Omid Scobie's new book were removed from shelves on Tuesday after it reportedly named a British royal said to have made racist remarks, reports say.
Scobie's latest book, "Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival," explores the current state of the British monarchy and the dynamics between members of the royal family.
According to reports from multiple outlets including The Guardian and the BBC, translated copies of the book in the Netherlands — released on Tuesday — stopped being sold after it was discovered that a section of the book named a family member said to have taken part in a racially insensitive conversation about Prince Archie's skin color before he was born.
According to a follow-up report in The Telegraph on Wednesday, a different chapter of the Dutch translated version of "Endgame" also implied the name of a second royal involved in the conversation.
"The first one is very specific. The second one is a little bit vague, if it's, if this person is really involved in the story," Dutch royal journalist Rick Evers told "Good Morning Britain" on Wednesday morning. "But the first one is very clear, and the official way was that it was a translation issue and there are some debates about how these passages were stated in the book. I would say, how could you translate a name wrong?"
Claims of racism within the royal family stem from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which the Duchess of Sussex alleged that some members of the British royal family had "concerns" about her unborn son's skin color during her pregnancy.
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Xander, the Dutch publishing house that issued translated copies of "Endgame," confirmed in a statement to Business Insider that the book has been temporarily removed from sale "due to an error."
"The rectified edition of 'Eindstrijd' by Omid Scobie will be in bookstores on Friday 8 December," the statement read.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on Scobie's book.
Meanwhile, Scobie addressed the translation error in an interview with Dutch TV show RTL Boulevard, according to the BBC.
Scobie said he did not name any individuals in any version of "Endgame" that he worked on. "There's never been a version that I've produced that has names in it," Scobie told RTL Boulevard.
As the BBC and Guardian point out, in the English edition of the book, Scobie wrote that two individuals had "concerns" about Archie's skin tone, adding that he knew of their identities but wouldn't reveal them for legal reasons.
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During the Sussexes' televised interview with Winfrey in March 2021, Meghan told Oprah that while she was pregnant, there were conversations about how her unborn son "won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."
Both Harry and Meghan declined to name the individuals who took part in the conversation during the interview, with Meghan telling Winfrey that doing so would be "very damaging to them." However, Winfrey later told CBS that Harry told her that neither of his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Philip, had made the remarks.
Following the interview, Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement addressing the Sussexes' claims.
"The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning," the palace said. "While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."
Update: November 29, 2023 — An earlier version of this article said only one royal was said to have made racist remarks in the Dutch translation of "Endgame." Following reports said the identity of a second royal family member involved in the conversation was implied in the translation as well.
