‘I don’t know how you sleep at night’: Furious Tessa Dunlop rages at Piers Morgan’s decision to reveal names of ‘senior racist royals’ named in controversial book and claims he’s ‘no better than Omid Scobie’

Tessa Dunlop tonight raged at Piers Morgan for revealing the names of the two senior royals who Omid Scobie claimed had ‘concerns’ over Prince Archie‘s skin colour.

The TV historian accused Morgan of identifying the pair on UK TV last night for ‘clicks’ and questioned how he ‘could sleep at night’.

Morgan was speaking about his decision to name the royals on his TalkTV show: Piers Morgan Uncensored. He was joined by a variety of guests including Dunlop, Dickie Arbiter, the late Queen’s ex-press secretary, and barrister Paula Rhone-Adrien.

Morgan opened the show by defending his decision to name the royals before describing Scobie as a ‘proven liar’ who is ‘dragging the Royal Family through the mud all over again and reigniting these racism charges because he wants to sell books and make money’.

The two senior royals identified were named widely by media organisations around the world tonight, including the Guardian and the Times, as King Charles and Kate. 

After Morgan opened the show with a monologue, Dunlop raged: ‘You appal me Piers. Occasionally I think “no he’s seen the light, he’s no longer crashing on about Harry”. And then this appalling diatribe we’ve just had to sit through – you lying there suggesting that you’re putting their names out effectively to save the monarchy.

Tessa Dunlop tonight raged at Piers Morgan for revealing the names of the two senior royals who Omid Scobie claimed had ‘concerns’ over Prince Archie ‘s skin colour

Morgan was tonight speaking about his decision to name the royals on his TalkTV show, which quickly became heated

The Dutch translation of Mr Scobie’s book Endgame appeared to reveal the name of the two royals alleged to have made the comments. Pictured: Omid Scobie

‘You put their names out for clicks. You’re no better than Omid Scobie. In fact, you’re worse, you call him a lick-spittle, you’re a great glob of phlegm that’s just landed on the royal doormat.

‘I don’t know how you slept last night. I struggled to sleep just thinking about what you’d done.’

Piers then interrupted: ‘No you didn’t, what a load of baloney. Stop the performative c**p, honestly. It’s performative c**p. Just calm down, have a civilised conversation.’

Dunlop then replied: ‘I’m not calm. We listened to 12 minutes. I was properly angry by your hypocrisy.’

When quizzed on what the ‘hypocrisy ‘ is, she replied: ‘Because you spend day in, day out, you’re pro-monarchy, the wonderful Queen, the wonderful Charles and then you go and dob Kate and Charles right in it when one’s at Cop28…’

As the fiery exchange got even more heated, Piers replied: ‘No I didn’t. I’ll tell you who did that, Omid Scobie. Because these names appeared in a draft of his book, which was published in the Netherlands for sale to Netherlands people.’

Morgan was hosting his live show as the Princess of Wales and Prince William brushed off the fallout from a race row by attending the Royal Variety Performance at the Royal Albert Hall. 

The heated show also came hours after the Dutch translator who worked on Scobie’s book insisted that the names of two royals at the centre of a racism scandal were in the manuscript she was sent.

Morgan was joined by a variety of guests including (L-R) Dunlop, Dickie Arbiter, the late Queen’s former press secretary, and barrister Paula Rhone-Adrien

Morgan said on his show that ‘at this point the deafening silence of Harry and Meghan becomes a little more than deafening – it becomes shameful’ 

Prince Archie is pictured with his parents at his christening in this official photograph taken in July 2019

Saskia Peeters said she did not add the names to the Dutch version of the book Endgame.

Speaking to MailOnline from her home in Arnhem, she said: ‘As a translator, I translate what is in front of me.

‘The names of the royals were there in black and white. I did not add them. I just did what I was paid to do and that was translate the book from English into Dutch.’

Morgan said on his show that ‘at this point the deafening silence of Harry and Meghan becomes a little more than deafening – it becomes shameful’.

He added: ‘They usually race to condemn and denounce any press reports they dislike.

‘So why did they remain so silent about Omid Scobie’s lies?’

The translator’s claims appear to contradict Scobie’s who told ITV’s This Morning that he did not include the names of the two royals accused of discussing the skin colour of Harry and Meghan’s son Archie when he submitted the completed manuscript to his publisher.

‘I never submitted a book that had those names in it,’ Scobie insisted today. 

In an interview with ITV’s This Morning, which started with a denial he is ‘Meghan’s mouthpiece’, Omid offered no mea culpa or apology for the error and when asked if he was upset he said:

‘I am obviously frustrated. I wouldn’t say I am upset about it’.

Asked if the Dutch farrago was a ‘stunt to sell books’ in the face of poor reviews, he said: ‘I wish it was the case’ and that ‘an investigation is underway’.

‘I had never submitted a book that had their names in it, so I can only talk about my version’, he said. ‘I wrote and edited the English version of the book with one publisher. That then gets licensed to other publishers. I can’t speak Italian, German, French, Dutch or any of the other languages that it’s come out in’.

He also said that he and Endgame had been unfairly criticised. He said: ‘I knew this book would be controversial, whether it’s about race or the Palace’s relationship with the press. I never expected it to be presented fairly’. He said: ‘There have been unfair attacks on me’.

The original claim about racism was made by Meghan in her infamous Oprah Winfrey interview of March 2021 when she revealed there were ‘several conversations’ between herself, Harry and members of the Royal Family about ‘how dark’ their unborn baby Archie would be

He said that he believed that he has been victimised because he was saying ‘loudly from the start’ that Meghan suffered racism. He added that because he is mixed race he has a different perspective on the racism she had – but insisted that he not just some ‘mouthy fan’.

Scobie said he was ‘as frustrated as anyone else’, adding: ‘I make it very clear in this book that I in every way possible want to adhere to the laws surrounding this subject.

‘It’s why I’ve been very careful in how it’s described in the book and it’s why I’ve never spoken about it beyond what I’ve said in the public domain before.

‘The reality is though is that this is information that is not privy just to me. Journalists across Fleet Street have known those names for a long time. We’ve all followed a certain code of conduct when it comes to talking about it.

‘It’s frustrating that now what’s going on in the Netherlands with the book that was obviously immediately rescinded and is now being reprinted has happened, and I’m glad to hear so. But for me I can only talk about the English version of the book that I wrote and produced.’

It comes as well-placed sources told the Mail that Buckingham Palace is today ‘considering all options’ over the royal race row stoked by Scobie’s new book.

Sources say that while King Charles is determined to focus on important state business in Dubai, where he is holding bilateral meetings ahead of giving a keynote opening speech at the COP28 summit on Friday, aides are seriously looking at how they should, if at all, respond.

While it is clear that courtiers will be looking at the various legal options open to them, it is incredibly unlikely that they would actually sue Scobie. They would not want to get into a protracted legal battle.

But a source told the Mail: ‘I understand the palace is considering all options open to them.

‘However the key thing for them is His Majesty responding in the most eloquent way possible by getting on with business and not letting it distract from vastly more important issues regarding the future on the planet and bilaterals with other world leaders including those impacted by the situation in the Middle East.’