How does the Royal Family respond to the 'royal racist' row?

Buckingham Palace is understood to be 'considering all options' in response to the claims in Omid Scobie's book - ITV News' Royal Editor Chris Ship has more

The Royal Family is doing what the Royal Family always does when they find themselves in the middle of a storm: they carry on with their work.

Which is why today, despite two names of alleged "royal racists" being shared in the Dutch version of the book Endgame, the King is ploughing ahead with a full day of engagements in Dubai at the UN climate change summit and Prince William and Kate will host other European royals in London's West End tonight.

Outwardly, they are not being diverted by the book, nor the naming of two senior royals on some TV outlets and on social media.

The King only said today, while in Dubai, that he is "all right very much, just about" after having had his "ancient" 75th birthday recently – but he didn’t say anything about Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame.

'I'm as frustrated as everyone else,' Omid Scobie said on This Morning

However, back at Buckingham Palace, they are furiously working out what to do and a source has let it be known they are "considering all options".

Of course, one of those options could be to do nothing. Not to respond. Just as they did not respond once to any of the claims Harry made in his book Spare earlier this year.

They could chose to respond in the most minimal way. Just as the late Queen responded when the original "racist" allegations were made by Harry and Meghan in their Oprah Winfrey interview.

Queen Elizabeth chose the phrase "recollections may vary".

Or they may choose a legal route, and seek retributions for the two royals named in the book – and subsequently on social media – who may feel they have been slandered or defamed.

For now, a royal source would only say that King Charles is "responding in the most eloquent way possible by getting on with business" at the COP28 climate change summit in Dubai and not letting the storm around this book "distract from vastly more important issues regarding the future of the planet".

The author himself has told ITV today that he never inserted the names in his text claiming he only wrote and edited the English version of his book.

"I am just as frustrated as everyone else." Omid Scobie told This Morning that the translated Dutch version revealed the names of two royals alleged to have asked about the skin colour of the Sussexes’ - at the time - unborn child Archie.

But Mr Scobie offered up no explanation for how names can appear in one version if they were never in the original manuscript from which it was translated.

"It’s still being investigated," he said.

The names of the two royals who spoke about the skin colour of Harry’s and Meghan’s baby are contained in a private letter between the Duchess of Sussex and her father-in-law, King Charles, which they exchanged following the Oprah interview in 2020.

Therefore, the identities of those senior royals should only be known to those who said and heard it – or those who have read the letter.

Meghan, it is understood, was not present when the conversation happened.

It doesn't explain how the identities suddenly appear in a book on sale in the Netherlands – when no other version of the book (that we know of) has named them.

Some claim it was a deliberate leak by the Sussexes themselves in an act of revenge, others speculate it was a clever ploy to generate publicity for the book.

Ever since Harry and Meghan raised this issues themselves on Oprah, they allowed the "royal racist" narrative to run for nearly two years.

But in his ITV interview about his own book, Spare, in January, Prince Harry told Tom Bradby that neither he nor Meghan had ever claimed Harry’s family had been "racist" (Harry said the press had made that up).

But he did say there was an issue with "unconscious bias" within his family.

Right now though, the work of the King to drum up worldwide action to fight climate change, and the work of William and Kate at a charity event this evening, will continue to be overshadowed by a book which, once again, examines the traumatic period between Harry and Meghan’s wedding and their exit from the Royal Family less than two years later.

 For the latest royal news, listen to ITV News' podcast The Royal Rota...