Dutch version of Omid Scobie's book ‘Endgame’ taken down from shelves over 'racist royals' controversy

Dutch publisher temporarily stops selling book about British royal family over possible disclosure of royal's racial concerns

The Dutch publisher of a new book about the British royal family has decided to stop selling it temporarily because of a possible disclosure regarding the senior royal who raised racial concerns about the potential skin tone of Prince Harry and Meghan's son, Archie.

Translation error prompts Dutch publisher to temporarily withdraw book on British royal family(X)

However, Xander Uitgevers, the Dutch publisher cited that they had taken off the book from shelves due to some translation error.

The book, called ‘Endgame’ in English and ‘Eindstrijd’ in Dutch, is written by Omid Scobie, a British journalist, known for his sympathetic views of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The book claims to reveal new details about the rift between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family, especially after their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.

In that interview, Meghan said that someone in the royal family had expressed concern about how dark the skin of their son Archie would be before he was born. She did not name the person, saying it would be “very damaging to them”. Winfrey later clarified that Harry had told her it was not the Queen or Prince Philip.

Scobie’s book does not name the person either, but it suggests that there was another person in the royal household who made similar comments about Archie’s skin color, according to PA Media.

However, the Dutch translation of the book apparently revealed the name of the person, which caused a controversy in the Netherlands. Xander Uitgevers, said on its website that it was “temporarily withdrawing” the book from sale and that it was “rectifying” the error in the translation.

Scobie told a Dutch TV channel, RTL Boulevard, that he had never written a version of the book that had names in it. He said he could not speak Dutch and he had not seen the copy for himself, but he trusted the publisher to fix the mistake. He also said that his book had received harsh criticism from the British press, which he expected.

The book is a sequel to Scobie’s previous book, ‘Finding Freedom’, which was a biography of the Sussexes published in 2020.