Omid Scobie swears ‘on family’s life’ royal naming row was not a stunt

Omid Scobie took the extraordinary step of swearing on his own life, and his family’s, on live TV last night that the naming of two royals in the Dutch version of Endgame is not a ‘stunt’ to shift more copies of his book. Mr Scobie, 42, said he was ‘hurt’ by the suggestion and dismissed it as a conspiracy theory by people who want to believe that he is ‘in cahoots’ with Meghan Markle, declaring: ‘It couldn’t be further from the truth’. 

He also refused to apologise for the racism scandal that has erupted, claiming: ‘I’m as frustrated as everyone else. The book I wrote, the book I edited, the book I signed off on, did not have names in it’. But questions about whether he put the names in remain because one of the Dutch translators told MailOnline yesterday: ‘The names of the royals were there in black and white. I did not add them’. Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Two’s Newsnight, Mr Scobie was asked to say ‘hand on heart’ that the farrago over the Dutch translation was not a PR stunt. He raised his hands, shaking his head, and replied: ‘On my life, on my family’s life.’ Ms Derbyshire said: ‘You don’t have to go that far, it’s fine’.

Scobie then said: ‘No it’s serious because I feel hurt by some of the things I’ve seen that have suggested a conspiracy theory, that this is some kind of publicity stunt, and “I’m in cahoots with my pal [Meghan]” and nonsense like that because it feeds into something that couldn’t be further from the truth’. Victoria then said: ‘In some version you must have written the names in and the wrong version has potentially gone to the people in charge of the rights around the world, I suppose’. Mr Scobie didn’t respond. It came as media organisations around the world, including ITV, The Guardian and The Times, named the two royals accused of asking about Archie’s skin colour as King Charles and his daughter-in-law Kate. 

During Good Morning Britain’s opening credits today, Ben Shephard said: ‘The Princess of Wales made no comment at the Royal Variety performance in London last night and it was business as usual for the King at the climate conference in Dubai after they were named in the Dutch version of a new book as the royals who questioned what colour skin Prince Archie would have.’ The royal author, 42, claims that the book that he ‘was extremely proud of’ has been ‘completely overshadowed by an event that’s caused me a lot of frustration’. In a tense BBC interview with Victoria Derbyshire last night, Mr Scobie was given the chance to say sorry to the Royal Family but instead declared: ‘It’s not for me to apologise because I still want to know what’s happened.’ 

The royal author, 42, said that the book that he ‘was extremely proud of’ has been ‘completely overshadowed by an event that’s caused me a lot of frustration’. The Dutch edition of Mr Scobie’s book named the two royals Meghan allegedly accused of having ‘concerns’ over ‘how dark’ Prince Archie would be, which was followed up by Piers Morgan last night identifying them on live television. The pair identified in the book were named widely by media organisations around the world last night, including the Guardian and the Times, as King Charles and Kate.

Sources close to the Duchess of Sussex, who allegedly named the pair in a letter to Charles, have insisted to the Telegraph that she had ‘never intended them to be publicly identified’ and that it ‘was not leaked to Mr Scobie by anyone in her camp’. When Mr Scobie was asked whether he could ‘hand on heart’ say that this wasn’t a publicity stunt to sell more books, he replied: ‘On my life, on my family’s life.’ He told Newsnight last night that ‘there are irresponsible people in this country that have broken the law and repeated names that should never have been repeated’. ‘The book I wrote, the book I edited, the book I signed off on, did not have names in it,’ he added. ‘I’m as frustrated as everyone else.’

Mr Scobie said there is a full investigation going on into what happened after he first heard about it on social media. The author, who said his book had been ‘legalled and vetted’, explained that he was in back to back interviews on the day that he was told by the Dutch publisher that there was a ‘translation error’. He added: ‘So I’m looking forward to finding out more about it because the English version of the book – the only one I know – the version I signed off on, that’s the book that is out there today, that’s the book that has no names in it. I make it very clear, because ultimately to write the names it’s a show and tell situation, there’s no ability to show so there was never an attempt to name.’

Mr Scobie was speaking as members of the Royal Family got down to business as usual, with King Charles in Dubai for Cop28 and Prince William and Kate dazzling at the Royal Variety Performance in London. Palace sources told The Mirror that the ‘entire Royal Family is united in outrage’ after members of the family were ‘unfairly named in this way’. They added: ‘There is absolute and unequivocal denial that anything said by the two persons named publicly was said, or even could be considered to be said, in a racist manner.’

The row was described as ‘an outrageous smear’ that began with the Oprah interview but has now ‘blown up into another stratosphere’. The interview also came just hours after both Dutch translators who worked on Mr Scobie’s controversial book insisted that the names of two royals at the centre of a racism scandal were in the manuscript they received. Saskia Peeters (pictured) 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.’ 

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