Omid Scobie admits to naming royals involved in racism row after sending 'early and uncleared text'

Omid Scobie's book Endgame caused a furore when the Dutch version was released last week, with early editions naming two members of the royal family who allegedly asked about what Prince Archie's skin colour would be.

The author had initially denied that he had ever written the names, even sharing this on Dutch network RTL Boulevard. However, in a new piece for the i newspaper, the 42-year-old has admitted that early versions of his text had contained the names, saying that he "edited" them out for the final version, but the Dutch publishers had gotten an "early and uncleared text".

In his piece, Omid wrote: "To be clear, the only publisher I worked directly with was the one covering the US and UK. I spent almost two months with independent British barristers and in-house legal counsel to ensure that every detail in the finished book was legally watertight."

He continued: "Unbeknownst to me at the time, [an] early and uncleared text was provided to the Dutch publisher in order for them to start work on the translation, with the understanding that their translation would be updated to reflect the final version of the book I officially submitted."

The writer said this was the process that had happened in countries like France and Italy, and when the book was published in the countries, they had omitted the names.

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He added: "What I can be sure of is that I edited carefully, took independent legal advice, and the finished book that I submitted was not the version published in the Netherlands."

The author made a number of bombshell claims in his book, including there being a growing rift between King Charles and Prince William. "He's [William] not giving his father the same space Charles did with the Queen," he wrote in the book. "There's no time for that." He then told The Times: "It would have been nice to see them come together on certain projects perhaps in the early years, to put on that united front, but they're all working in silos."

Omid also claimed that William ignored texts from Prince Harry on the day the late Queen died, when the Duke of Sussex was trying to arrange a flight to Balmoral in Scotland from London."It was upsetting to witness," a source close to the Sussexes told Mr Scobie. "(Harry) was completely by himself on this."

However, Omid also made some positive claims in the book, including that Charles and Meghan Markle remain in contact and when the King celebrated his 75th birthday, Harry and Meghan reportedly recorded a sweet video of Archie and Lilibet singing Happy Birthday to their grandfather.

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