Omid Scobie has appeared to admit that he did write the names of the senior royals implicated in a race row in an early draft of his book Endgame.
Last month it emerged that a Dutch edition of the book was published with claims that the King and his daughter in-law, the Princess of Wales, had made remarks about Archie’s skin colour while Meghan Markle was pregnant. The translation of the book has since been pulled from the shelves.
Writing for the i newspaper, the royal reporter repeated his claim that the Dutch publisher was responsible for the scandal but admitted that “early and uncleared” text had been provided to them without his knowledge.
He added that this was done “in order for them to start work on the translation, with the understanding that their translation would be updated to reflect the final version of the book I officially submitted”.
Mr Scobie, 42, went on: “To be clear, the only publisher I worked directly with was the one covering the US and UK. I spent almost two months with independent British barristers and in-house legal counsel to ensure that every detail in the finished book was legally watertight.”
The author, who is seen by some royal-watchers as close to Harry and Meghan, previously insisted he “never submitted a book that had those names in it”.
He told Dutch chat shut RTL Boulevard last month: “The book is in several languages, and unfortunately I do not speak Dutch.
“But if there are translation errors, I'm sure the publishers will have it under control.
“I wrote and edited the English version. There's never been no version that I've produced that has names in it.”
Piers Morgan named the royal pair on his TalkTV show last week, prompting other media outlets to follow suit.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Harry and Meghan alleged an unidentified member of the monarchy had raised "concerns and conversations about how dark his (Archie's) skin might be when he's born".
Mr Scobie states in his book that two people, not one as Meghan said, made the comment about Archie.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not commented publicly on the leak of the names.
Meanwhile, senior royals gathered for a glittering reception earlier this week in their first appearance since the scandal broke.
The King and Queen were photographed with the Prince and Princess of Wales on Wednesday evening during the annual glittering Buckingham Palace diplomatic reception, widely interpreted by the media as a royal show of unity.
