The contents of Omid Scobie's controversial book "Endgame" has opened discussions on whether he should face legal ramifications for his revelations on the royal family. One lawyer specifically cited the debacle caused over the naming of the alleged "racist" royals in the Dutch version of the book, which could prompt royal family members, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, to sue the author.
Scobie said U.K. laws prevented him from including the names of the said "racist" royals in the original version of his tome. He denied having any knowledge of how the Dutch copy contained these royals' names given that he "never submitted a book that had those names in it".
"I wrote and edited the English version of the book with one publisher. That then gets licensed to other publishers. I can't speak Italian, German, French, Dutch or any of the other languages that it's come out in," he explained during an appearance on ITV's "This Morning" on Thursday, following the release of "Endgame" on November 28.
He denied allegations that the error was part of a money-grabbing stunt to sell more copies. The author likewise claimed that the identities of these royals is not unknown to other journalists.
"The reality, though, is that this is information that is not privy just to me. Journalists across Fleet Street have known those names for a long time. We've all followed a certain code of conduct when it comes to talking about it," Scobie shared.
He added: "It's frustrating that now what's going on in the Netherlands with the book that was obviously immediately rescinded and is now being reprinted has happened, and I'm glad to hear so. But for me, I can only talk about the English version of the book that I wrote and produced."
Despite his explanation, Scobie could allegedly still face legal consequences. International lawyer and one of Britain's leading media lawyers, Mark Stephens, suggested that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry could sue the author on the grounds of privacy. The names of these royals were included in private letters the duchess sent to King Charles III.
"Privacy doesn't just belong to the palace it belongs separately and severally to Meghan and Harry," he told Newsweek.
Stephens explained: "Presumably Meghan and Harry have given a solemn undertaking that this should never see the light of day and given their absolute horror at invasions of privacy it is frankly astonishing that they haven't already instructed Schillings (heir legal team) to issue injunctive proceedings against Omid Scobie."
He added: "He's let the cat out of the bag and they can also get the injunction against the world—and it could be the great rapprochement."
Stephens suggested that the couple get an "injunction against the person who's breached their confidence" to prevent the information from being repeated in other publications.
"The moral imperative is that they must—given their widely known concerns about privacy and seeing another member of the family suffer as well as themselves suffer from an invasion of privacy—they would want to do everything they could to prevent it going further," he explained.
It is unclear how Scobie obtained the names of the alleged "racist" royals as Meghan Markle's letters to King Charles III were believed to be under lock and key. There is speculation that the Sussexes' camp briefed the author, who has since denied the couple's involvement with "Endgame" nor being their friend.
