King Charles III has been urged to respond to claims that he was one of the royal family members who raised concerns about the complexion of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son, Prince Archie.
His Majesty, along with Kate Middleton, allegedly engaged in conversations about how dark the young royal's skin would be before he was born, according to the Dutch copy of Omid Scobie's new book "Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival". But both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have yet to comment on the claim.
Instead, the royals have kept a stiff upper lip amid the controversy and carried on with their public engagements. Two days after the original book came out on November 28, King Charles III went to Dubai to attend the COP28 summit.
Meanwhile, Prince William and Kate Middleton put on a brave face and a smile as they attended the Royal Variety Performance at the Albert Hall in London. They declined to answer when reporters asked them: "Your Royal Highness, have you got a comment about Omid Scobie's book?" and "Did you watch the Piers Morgan show last night, Your Royal Highnesses?"
However, Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, has urged the royals to respond to the claim in Scobie's book. He said that "it's not just tittle-tattle when it comes to things like racism".
He told Newsweek: "This is a public institution and if these were politicians, the focus would be on who said what and should they apologise? Should they be accountable? Not, why was this in the translated copy?"
He added: "I think the royals need to come clean and say what was said and why, and apologise if necessary. We need to know that our head of state lives by the standards we expect and, if not, ask questions about why he's there."
Smith said that allegations of racism against the British royals are nothing new. He called "people who feign surprise that the royals may be accused of racism" as being "willfully ignorant or disingenuous because the allegations have been fairly steady over the years".
In their Oprah interview in March 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed there were concerns raised about how dark their son would be prior to his birth and "what that would mean or look like." The duchess refused to reveal the royals' names as it would be damaging for them. But Piers Morgan on his "Uncensored" show last week said that the Dutch copy of Scobie's book revealed Kate Middleton and King Charles III were the royals referred to by the Sussexes.
