Piers Morgan has remained unapologetic after naming two senior members of the Royal Family said to be at the heart of the Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘racism row’.
In a jaw-dropping move, the outspoken presenter announced the names on his TalkTV show and told viewers he “doesn’t believe any racist comments were ever made by any of the Royal Family”. It comes after thousands of copies of a Dutch version of new royal book Endgame by Omid Scobie were pulled from the shelves for identifying those who allegedly expressed concern over the colour of Harry’s oldest son Archie before he was born.
Author Mr Scobie, who is often referred to as ‘Meghan’s pal’ and wrote the previous book Finding Freedom about Meghan and Harry, has denied he is responsible for translated passages in foreign publications and said he left the names out of his English manuscript for legal reasons. The Mirror has chosen not to name the pair. Buckingham Palace is now understood to be “considering all options”, including legal action.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Piers shared a picture of the Daily Mail front page which led with ‘Outrage as royals in Scobie book race row named on TV’. He captioned the post: “I’m outraged too – that the rest of the British media hasn’t done the same! Why should British people be barred from knowing what Dutch people know about OUR Royal Family?”
He also hit back at royal reporters, including Chris Ship at ITV, who wrote: “The 2 royal names were never that hard to find and now @piersmorgan made it even easier by sharing them on his TV show. We should remind ourselves what Harry himself said to @ITV about these remarks by his family: neither he nor Meghan ever said these comments were ‘racist.’”
Piers retorted: “You should grow a pair and name them too. As for Harry’s pathetic U-turn and attempt to deflect blame onto the media, we should also remind ourselves that for two years the Sussexes let their unsubstantiated claims to Oprah be reported as meaning royals had been racist.”
In a clip of the ITV interview with Prince Harry that has resurfaced following the bombshell revelations in Scobie's book, he is asked: “In the Oprah interview you accuse members of your family of racism.” Harry shakes his head before saying: “We didn’t. The British press said that.” He goes on to say he didn’t consider the comment about Archie’s skin colour ‘racist’ from “living within that family” and added: “For me, the difference is unconscious bias and racism - but if you are called out for unconscious bias, you need to make that right.”
Royal author Mr Scobie is due to appear on This Morning later today to give his first interview about his new book – and the now controversy surrounding it. He admits knowing the royal names involved in the ‘race row’, but said legal restrictions in the UK barred him from publishing them.
In a statement, he explained: “Having only written and edited the English version of Endgame, I can only comment on that manuscript, which does not name the two individuals who took part in the conversation. I’m happy to hear that the error in the translation of the Dutch edition is being fixed.”
Last night royal sources dismissed the explanation as “nonsense”, after it was revealed one complete section appeared in the Dutch version of the book that was absent from the English copy. One source said: “As with much of this book, which has ranged from wild conspiracy theories to total mistruths and slighted opinion, all is not what it seems. There is an understanding regarding translation of texts that may contain the odd error, a rather blinding one in this case, but whole paragraphs of mistruths? Surely it’s complete nonsense.”
Mr Scobie’s book has been pulled from sale in the Netherlands while the Dutch publishers said they had been ordered by US bosses to put sales “on hold”. A statement said: “Xander Uitgevers is temporarily withdrawing the book Eindstrijd by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified.”
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