Minister praises Charles and Kate amid ‘racist royals’ row

Buckingham Palace considers legal action after Piers Morgan and other media outlets named two royals who allegedly raised concerns about the skin colour of Prince Harry’s son.

Piers Morgan has named the two royal 'racists' as he lashed out at Endgame author Omid Scobie. Picture: The Sun

A British minister has defended the two senior royals who were named in connection with the royal race row in an apparent misprint of a controversial book.

Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, praised the “dignity” and “grace” of the King and the Princess of Wales after early Dutch copies of Endgame by Omid Scobie suggested they were the two royals who had made remarks about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ son Archie.

In her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duchess of Sussex alleged that an unidentified member of the monarchy – not the late Queen or Prince Philip – had raised “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born”, causing speculation and dispute about who was being accused.

On Wednesday the broadcaster Piers Morgan named the two on TalkTV, claiming he never believed the allegations of racism. He justified his actions by saying that such damaging claims should be tested in public rather than shrouded in secrecy.

The pair have also been named by The New York Post and The New York Times.

The palace is said to be taking legal advice and is “considering all options”. The royal family was disappointed and “considering its options”, possibly whether to pursue Mr Morgan for defamation.

When asked by Jeremy Kyle on TalkTV about the lack of evidence for the claims, Mr Tugendhat said: “Some individual has written some rumour and scuttlebutt that has made various claims about His Majesty the King that are, frankly, completely unproven. Frankly I see this as just rumour, hearsay and an attempt to disparage somebody who’s served our country with enormous dignity and enormous grace for many many years.”

On his TalkTV show, Morgan said he didn’t believe the two royals were racist, but he named them as Charles and Catherine.

He said people outside Britain could read the names, and that naming them would allow an open debate about the circumstances of the accusation. “I don’t believe that any racist comments were ever made by any of the royal family,’’ Morgan said. “And until there is actual evidence of those comments being made I will never believe it.”

The publishers of the Dutch edition have pulped Endgame because it contained the names.

Scobie denied the inclusion of the names in the Dutch edition was a publicity stunt. He said it was a translation error and that he had never submitted a manuscript that included the names.

However, the Dutch translator Saskia Peeters, has told British newspapers she translated what she had been given and the names of the royals had been in front of her in black and white.

Additional reporting: The Times