Royal journalist Rick Evers has claimed that the Dutch publication of Omid Scobie’s new book Endgame was “not an error”, following calls for the book to be pulled from shelves.
The new royal biography, penned by Scobie, has revealed the identity of “two royal racists” in the Dutch version of the book.
The claim suggests that “two members of the royal household” expressed concern about the skin tone of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son Archie before he was born.
The English publication does not name any individuals, but the Dutch version does. Publisher Xander Uitgevers has blamed a “mistake in the translation” and ordered the book to be removed from shelves.
Rick Evers claims the Dutch publication revelation ‘was not a translation error’
GB News / Xander Uitgevers
Defending his book on Dutch television, Omid Scobie told RTL Boulevard there’s “never been a version” that contains the names of the royals.
Scobie stated: “Unfortunately I can’t speak Dutch so I haven’t seen the copy for myself, so if there have been any translation errors I’m sure the publisher’s got it under control.”
Reacting to the scandal, Dutch royal journalist Rick Evers revealed to GB News that the book “was in his local bookshop this morning”.
Evers admitted he thought he “didn’t have something special” with the Dutch publication, as “everyone in the world got the book and the manuscript the week before.”
Evers told GB News of the removal of the book: “They’re going to pulp them indeed and they will have new stock soon they hope, but they don’t know when.
“The official thing was that it was because of there were some discussions about some of the paragraphs, they wouldn’t exactly mention which paragraphs of course, which is something different than just a translation error.”
When asked if media in the Netherlands will report on and reveal the names of the royals mentioned, Evers said: “Of course, it’s black and white in the book.
“So why wouldn’t we quote Mr Scobie, what he’s writing in his book?”
Dutch copies of Endgame have been found in Netherlands bookshops after the call for them to be removed
Rick Evers / GB News
Evers revealed he had originally reported on the revelation, and was asked by the book publishers to take it down.
Evers said: “I published it at at midnight directly when the release was of the book. And then I got a call an hour later from the publisher to ask me to get it offline because there are some some issues with the names they’ve mentioned.”
Host Andrew Pierce then asked: “It’s a bit late, isn’t it? It’s the publisher’s fault. They’ve they’ve brought out the book, they’ve got the names in there. Are they trying to say they didn’t know?”
Evers replied: “If you compare the English and the Dutch version, you just see very clearly that there is just missing two paragraphs.
“One of the paragraphs has been changed with one sentence to say that the writer is not allowed to say the specific names. So this cannot be a translation error.”
