Meghan and Harry accused of leaking royal names in race scandal: report
Palace insiders are not holding back in pointing the finger at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry for actions that they say allowed King Charles III and Kate Middleton to be named this week as two royal family members who allegedly voiced “concerns” about the color of their future son’s skin.
“In all likelihood, it must have been the Sussex camp which leaked the names,” a palace insider told the U.K. tabloid The Sun, in a story headlined, “Meghan’s Revenge.” “It’s a nasty and deliberate attack,” the insider said.
The names of the king and the Princess of Wales appear in a passage of the Dutch edition of the controversial new book, “Endgame” by Omid Scobie, as U.K. TV host Piers Morgan revealed on his show Wednesday . Scobie has spent this week furiously defending his book and denying that he is a friend, “mouthpiece” or “cheerleader” of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, or that he wrote the book with their assistance or on their behalf.
In the explosive passage, Scobie cites a private letter Meghan wrote to Charles, her father-in-law, naming two royals who took part in alleged “troubling” conversations about what her son would look like. The American former TV actor, who is biracial, exchanged letters with Charles after she sparked a global uproar by mentioning these “troubling” conversations when she and Harry were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
Scobie has said he did not include the names of the royals in his final version of the book, due to libel laws in the U.K. He said his final version was written and edited in English. However, the names were somehow included in a short passage that only appears in the Dutch copies of the book, the BBC reported . These copies, with the passage with the royal names, were released in Holland, but have since been ordered removed from the shelves.
Scobie has denied having anything to do with what he initially called a “translation error” with the Dutch edition, or that the “error” was part of a publicity stunt to boost book sales amid negative reviews. On ITV Thursday, he said, “I’m as frustrated as anyone else,” the Daily Mail reported . He also said he “never submitted a book that had their names in it.”
While U.K. publications have not published the royals’ names, presumably also due to U.K. libel laws, Morgan revealed them Wednesday, saying his fellow citizens have a right to know information that readers in another country are privy to. Morgan also said he doesn’t “believe any racist comments were ever made by any of the royal family.”
According to an English translation of the passage, which has circulated online , the controversial lines read: “After discussing possible unconscious biases within the family, after it was revealed that the King and Princess of Wales had taken part in such conversations about Archie, Kate has avoided discussion the subject with her sister-in-law.”
Back at Buckingham Palace, insiders were seething, anonymously, to journalists in the U.K. media. The Daily Mail reported that “the hunt” for the culprit who leaked the letters to Scobie is underway. A senior palace source said, “It’s vanishingly unlikely the names came from here.”
Another royal insider told The Sun: “That letter is under lock and key and no one from within the King’s circle would’ve briefed anyone about its contents.”
However, Scobie said on ITV that he wasn’t first reporter to get wind of Charles and Meghan exchanging letters in the aftermath of the Oprah Winfrey interview, or that Meghan named family members who discussed her son Archie’s skin color. “Journalists across Fleet Street have known those names for a long time,” Scuba said.
Indeed, back in April, ahead of Charles’ coronation, someone let The Telegraph know that Meghan had written a letter to the king, expressing her concerns about unconscious bias in he royal family.
The Telegraph, citing an anonymous source, reported that Charles initially wrote Meghan after the Winfrey interview to express sadness over the breakdown in relations between the family and her and Harry. Meghan is said to have thanked Charles for writing, and the exchange between the two was “warm in tone,” even if it didn’t ease tensions between the two sides. According to The Telegraph, Meghan also suggested she never intended to specifically accuse anyone of being racist; she just wanted to raise concerns about unconscious bias.
Legal and royal experts have said that Meghan and Harry should seek an injunction to ban the reprinting of the royal names that appear in the Dutch translation — given that they publicly vowed to not reveal the names themselves. Experts also said the California-based couple need to do more to publicly distance themselves from Scobie — more than just have “insiders” from their camp let the media know that they had nothing to do with his book.
Experts noted that the couple have launched high-profile court cases in the past over perceived invasions of their privacy, including when Meghan’s letter to her father was leaked to The Daily Mail. Furthermore, legal action by the Sussexes could allay suspicions that they cooperated with Scobie on “Endgame” and show they are serious about repairing their relationship with the royal family and moving on past all the royal drama, experts said.
U.K. media lawyer Mark Stephens told Newsweek that the right to privacy in relation to letters doesn’t just exist for the king, but also for Meghan, so she could sue for an injunction.
Given the Sussexes’ “absolute horror at invasions of privacy, it is frankly astonishing that they haven’t already instructed (their lawyers) to issue injunctive proceedings against Omid Scobie,” Stephens said, adding that Scobie had already “let the cat out of the bag.”
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Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said that Scobie is “the ultimate figure when it comes to seeking sensation,” the Daily Mail reported . Scobie, he said, has an argument he wants to make an argument about the monarchy being in “decline” and “fighting for survival,” and he is getting attention by reigniting the royal race scandal started by Meghan on Oprah Winfrey. Fitzwilliams said he agrees with palace insiders, who suspect that the Sussexes were the original source of the royal names that ended up in Dutch versions of “Endgame.”
“The circumstances which led to the names appearing in the Dutch copy of ‘Endgame’ have not been explained and must surely involve Scobie in being told the names by the Sussexes, rather than by friends of (the Sussexes), as it is so sensitive,” Fitzwiliams said. “Yet they both deny collaboration, this surely be false.”
Other royal experts have expressed dismay at the author’s “malicious” and “venomous” attacks on Kate, in which he’s called her a “cold” “Stepford-like royal wife” who doesn’t work that hard. They said “Endgame” will end any hope of rapprochement between the Sussexes and the royal family and, particularly, between Harry and his brother, Prince William.
“It is not difficult to imagine how Prince William will react to this hatchet-job and harsh depiction of his wife,” Richard Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. “Far from seeking a fraternal reconciliation, such claims from (Meghan’s) cheerleader-in-chief that his grandmother, the late Queen, liked Kate because she was ‘coachable,’ unlike the ‘strong-minded’ Princess Diana, can only deepen the rift between the brothers.”
Royal author Robert Jobson also said in a column for the Daily Mai l that it’s time for Harry and Meghan to “make a clear, personal statement” to distance themselves from “Endgame” and from Scobie.
“Off-the-record briefings and ‘friends’ don’t cut it,” Hobson said. “By staying quiet they are effectively backing (Scobie), his implausible claims and his spurious allegation that the monarchy is on the brink and ‘fighting for survival.’”
