Explainer
What is the royal race row and why is it back in
the news?
A book has named Charles and Catherine as royals
alleged to have discussed skin colour of Harry and Meghan’s unborn son
Caroline
Davies
Sat 2 Dec
2023 06.00 GMT
The royal
race row that erupted more than two years ago, when the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that a member of the royal family had remarked on
Prince Archie’s skin colour before he was born, has simmered ever since. Now it
has exploded once more as the Dutch version of a new book appears to have named
King Charles and the Princess of Wales as family members alleged to have made
such remarks.
What did the Sussexes allege in their 2021 interview?
Meghan
claimed in the interview with the US chatshow host that while she was pregnant
with Archie, a member of the royal family had raised with Harry “concerns and
conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”. Declining to
name the royal, Meghan said: “I think it would very damaging to them.” Harry
then told Winfrey: “That conversation, I’m never going to share, but at the
time it was awkward. I was a bit shocked.” Meghan also suggested the fact that
Archie was mixed race meant he was initially denied the title of prince and the
security protection that went with the title. Winfrey later said Harry had told
her privately that the individual was neither Queen Elizabeth nor the Duke of
Edinburgh. Archie and his sister, Lilibet, were officially styled prince and
princess after their great grandmother, the queen, died and their grandfather
Charles became king, in line with protocol.
How did the royal family react?
The day
after the interview, Prince William, on an engagement at an east London school,
was asked by a reporter: “Is the royal family a racist family, sir?” William
responded with a terse: “We are very much not a racist family.” After two days
of crisis talks, Buckingham Palace sought to draw a line under the row. The
queen released a statement saying: “The issues raised, particularly that of
race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very
seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”
Have the Sussexes ever repeated this claim?
The couple
accepted the Ripple of Hope award from the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights
organisation for their racial justice and mental health work at a gala in New
York just days before their highly anticipated Netflix docuseries was released
in December 2022. It led to speculation they would revisit their claims on
Netflix, but they did not.
Neither did
Harry mention it in his bombshell memoir, Spare, released in January 2023. In
an ITV interview to promote the book, the interviewer Tom Bradby said: “In the
Oprah interview you accused members of your family of racism.” Harry replied:
“No, I didn’t,” adding: “The British press said that.” Bradby continued, saying
Meghan had said there were “troubling comments about [Archie’s] skin colour”.
Harry replied: “There was – there was concern about his skin colour.” Bradby
asked: “Right, wouldn’t you describe that as essentially racist?” Harry
replied: “I wouldn’t, not having lived within that family.” Harry then went on
to outline his views on “the difference between racism and unconscious bias”.
What has reignited the controversy?
A Dutch
translation of the author Omid Scobie’s new book. Endgame, published this week,
appears to name not one but two senior royals alleged to have made the remarks.
Charles and Catherine are both alleged to have had conversations about Archie’s
skin colour before he was born, reported the Dutch journalist Rick Evers, who
has a copy of the book and has posted photographs of the extracts on social
media.
The names,
however, do not appear in the English version. Scobie does write in the English
version that Meghan mentioned the person alleged to have made the remarks in a
letter she sent to Charles, after he wrote to her expressing his sorrow at the
split in the family. But, Scobie writes, laws prevent him from revealing more.
The names
were circulating widely on social media when Piers Morgan broadcast them on
TalkTV and they have subsequently been published by UK media outlets, including
the Guardian and the BBC.
How did it happen?
Scobie
initially blamed a “translation” mistake, and the Dutch publishers, Xander
Uitgevers, immediately withdrew and pulped copies, saying rectified editions
would be available on 8 December.
The Dutch
translator has insisted the names were in the manuscript she received. “As a
translator, I translate what is in front of me,” Saskia Peeters told Mail
Online. “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.”
Scobie
insisted on the ITV This Morning show he had “never submitted a book that had
their names in it”, and could only talk about the English version that he
wrote.
He said he
had never used the word “racist”, and that his book referred to “unconscious
bias” . The inclusion of the names was still being investigated, he said.
Asked on
BBC Newsnight whether the names had been deliberately included in the Dutch
version to generate interest in the book, Scobie said he was “hurt” by
“conspiracy theories that this is a publicity stunt”.
There is
speculation that one explanation could be the Dutch publisher was sent an early
draft of Endgame by mistake before lawyers removed the names.
What happens next?
Buckingham
Palace made no official comment but sources have reportedly indicated it is
“exploring all options”. Whether this includes the possibility of legal action,
and if so against who, remains unclear.
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