Jaws dropped when Meghan Markle revealed, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey alongside husband Prince Harry in March 2021, that a member of the royal family questioned what color Prince Archie’s skin tone would be before he was born in May 2019.
But now, in his new book Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, Omid Scobie writes that there were actually two members of the Royal Household who made comments of the (disgusting) sort—and that Meghan named who they were in private letters written to the King in the spring of 2021, after the Oprah interview.
It seems Scobie knows who the two people are, but, per The Mirror, writes that “laws in the United Kingdom prevent me from reporting who they were.”
Endgame, according to the outlet, includes claims that both Meghan and Charles felt they had “both been heard” after exchanging letters with one another.
After the Oprah sit-down, in a 90-minute interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby Harry said that the royal family were not guilty of racism so much as “unconscious bias”: “The difference between racism and unconscious bias—the two things are different,” he said. “But once it’s been acknowledged, or pointed out to you as an individual, or as an institution, that you have unconscious bias, you therefore have an opportunity to learn and grow from that in order so that you are part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Otherwise, unconscious bias then moves into the category of racism.”
In his book, Scobie claims for the first time that there was not just one person that made comments of the sort, but two. That said, he doesn’t specify whether the alleged other person is also a member of the royal family or someone who is employed by the Firm—but he does confirm that they are part of the Royal Household.
“I do know who made the comments about Archie’s skin color,” Scobie said in an interview with Good Morning, and via The Sun. “The names were mentioned in letters between Meghan and Charles that were exchanged sometime after the Oprah interview. We know from sources that Charles was horrified that that’s how Meghan felt. Those conversations were, and that he wanted to, sort of as a representative for the family, have that conversation with her. And it is why I personally think they have been able to move forward with some kind of line of communication afterwards, though they may not see eye to eye on it.”
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Endgame hits shelves tomorrow.
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.
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