Endgame: Publisher of book that appeared to name royal as racist ‘called journalist within one hour’ of his writing about it

The Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s book Endgame has drawn criticism for purportedly identifying a Royal Family member as the one who voiced concerns about Meghan Markle’s then-unborn son Archie’s skin tone.

Key points from the book were included in an article written by royal correspondent Rick Evers, who has worked as a royal correspondent in the Netherlands for 14 years. The book’s “legal problems” have caused the publisher, Xander, to temporarily halt sales of the book.

Meghan allegedly expressed her worries about unconscious bias in the Royal Family in a letter to King Charles, who was the Prince of Wales at the time, according to the Dutch version. Although early readers in the Netherlands noticed that the Dutch version names a specific person, the version being sold in English-speaking countries does not name anyone. Evers does not think it is the result of a “mistranslation,” as suggested by Scobie. Evers did not discover the difference until after publishing an article. He believes a legal department reviewed the original manuscript and advised the publishers that the name should “come out.” None of the journalists in the UK received an advance copy of the book; he is one of two in the Netherlands.