Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Controversial book about royal family pulled from shelves in the Netherlands

Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame was published on Tuesday and he is said to be close to Harry and Meghan.

Gwyn Wright
Tuesday 28 November 2023 23:28 GMT
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf (PA)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf (PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A new book about the royal family has been pulled from shelves in the Netherlands amid reports it named the royal said to have raised questions about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son Archie before he was born.

Endgame, by US-based British journalist Omid Scobie, makes several claims about how and why the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from being working royals.

The author is said to be close to Harry and Meghan.

The royal couple first made the claim a royal had asked about their son’s skin colour when they were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

Xander Uitgevers, which has published the Dutch translated version of the book, said on Tuesday that it was “temporarily withdrawing” it from bookshops in the country.

It added in a statement on its website: “An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified.”

Mr Scobie told Dutch TV: “The book is available in a number of languages and unfortunately I can’t speak Dutch so I haven’t seen the copy for myself, but if there have been any translation errors I am sure the publisher has got it under control.

“For me, I edited and wrote the English version, there has never been a version that I’ve produced that has names in it.”

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in