Which British royals wondered aloud about Meghan and Harry’s soon-to-be-born baby’s skin colour? The best theory is that they were Charles and Kate and it has to do with the “find” function on Microsoft Word documents. Here goes: the then-heir and his daughter-in-law were outed – subject to all the usual denials and caveats – by a Dutch journalist and then by Piers Morgan this week after being identified in the Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame, in a short window before all copies of the book were withdrawn from sale.
It’s not clear why the royals should have been identifiable in one translation and not others. But it is possible that a decision was taken to fudge the issue in all editions by removing Kate’s name from the key passage (on p.128 in the Dutch version); and that a copy editor removed it with the help of the “command F” function – but used that function to search only for “Kate” and not “Princess of Wales”. Either way the title stayed in and could not refer to the previous princess, Camilla – the theory goes – because she was already queen by the time the manuscript was being written.
It was Meghan who first made the claim about the skin colour conversations, in the couple’s 2021 sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. She didn’t name them but she did suggest it would be “very damaging to them” if they were identified, and it’s hard to disagree.
The English version of Endgame says the issue of the alleged conversations “may have later been briefly discussed between Meghan and Charles over [sic.] letter”. A few paragraphs later, Scobie notes a Times report after the event claiming Kate in particular was determined that Buckingham Palace’s response – famously including the words “recollections may vary” – should convey the point that the family “did not accept a lot of what had been said”.
In this version, any joining of the dots is left to readers. In the original Dutch translation, a presenter on the RTL Boulevard show told viewers on Wednesday that Charles is identified as one of those involved on page 128, and Kate on page 334. The presenter, Jeroen van der Boom, then speculated that Kate’s name “wasn’t taken out properly”. “Probably they did ‘control F’ Kate, Kate, Kate, and took out all the passages with Kate that referred to the skin colour of Archie and missed the ‘Princess of Wales’, so that is still in the book”.
It appears to have been RTL Boulevard that first alerted Scobie to what he calls an “error” in the translation. Van der Boom said on the programme’s first call with Scobie the author was “hugely shocked” and immediately afterwards called his publisher. The book was withdrawn, corrected and goes on sale in the Netherlands again today. Buckingham Palace has said it is “considering its options” – presumably including legal ones.
Scobie appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight last night to reject suggestions that the Dutch “error” was in fact a publicity stunt. Uncorrected original copies of the Dutch version are said to be selling for upwards of €170 a copy.