King Charles and Prince William are preparing to hold high-level talks as they deal with the fallout of two royals being identified in the race scandal which has engulfed the monarchy over the past two years.
According to the UK Telegraph, their two households will meet for a significant discussion this week over the accusations of racism, which originally stemmed from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview but have exploded again in recent days.
During the explosive appearance, Meghan claimed that while she was pregnant with her first child, there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born” within her husband’s family.
The names of the two senior royals allegedly named in a letter between Meghan and the King were published in “error” in a Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s new book, Endgame, last week, sparking an uproar.
The Telegraph reports that aides will gather in the coming days to discuss their next move, with “all options” – including legal avenues – on the table.
“Discussions are being had, and we’ll continue those discussions this week, but not in a crisis talks manner,” a source close to the palace told the publication.
“Conversations will be had and decisions made with care and time and professionalism rather than rushed over a weekend.”
It comes after Charles, William and Kate all appeared to adopt a “business as usual” attitude in recent days, continuing with their official duties as the controversy grew around them.
Meanwhile, pressure is building on Harry and Meghan to publicly respond to the allegations in Mr Scobie’s book, with sources close to the Sussexes insisting that she “never intended” for those involved in the race conversations to be “publicly identified”.
The translator of the Dutch version of Endgame has now insisted that she was handed a manuscript that included the names of the royals involved in the race row.
Saskia Peeters spoke out after Mr Scobie publicly blamed a translation error, and refuted his claim.
“The names of the royals were there in black and white. I did not add them,” she told MailOnline.
“I just did what I was paid to do and that was translate the book from English into Dutch.”
Despite her insistence, Mr. Scobie told Newsnight it was not for him to apologise for the drama.
“The buck doesn’t stop with me because there are irresponsible people in this country who’ve broken the law and repeated names that should never have been repeated, should never have been named,” he said.
“The book I edited and signed off on did not have names in it.”
The publisher of Endgame, Xander Uitgevers, was left scrambling to pull thousands of copies of the Dutch edition from shelves on Tuesday as the “error” was revealed by local media.
“An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified,” the publisher’s managing director, Anke Roelen, said in a statement.