Piers Morgan has doubled down on his controversial decision to name the two allegedly “racist royals” after their identities were inadvertently revealed in Omid Scobie’s book Endgame.
Morgan, 58, confirmed which senior members of the “the Firm” were identified in the Dutch translation of Scobie’s controversial new book, with the names being reported in an excerpt about the royal racism scandal involving the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2021.
While the British press – including The Independent – has withheld these names, Morgan sensationally revealed them during Wednesday night’s episode of his TalkTV show.
“If Dutch people wandering into a bookshop can see these names, then you, the British people who actually pay for the royal family are entitled to know, too,” Morgan said, in an eight-and-a-half-minute segment on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
He also called Scobie, 42, out after the British journalist denied naming the royals in the English manuscript of Endgame, blaming their accidental inclusion on a “translation error” which resulted in Endgame being pulled from shelves in Netherlands – one day after its release.
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“How exactly do you mistranslate a name?” Morgan said, incredulous over Scobie’s suggestion about how the names crept into one passage of his translated book.
Morgan’s reveal sparked criticism on social media, with ITV’s royal editor Chris Ship writing: “The 2 royal names were never that hard to find & now Piers Morgan made it even easier by sharing them on his TV show. We should however remind ourselves what Harry himself said to @ITV about these remarks by his family: neither he nor Meghan ever said these comments were ‘racist’.”
Ship was referring to Prince Harry’s interview with Tom Bradby earlier this year, when he denied accusing the royal family of racism in relation to Meghan’s earlier comments.
In 2021, the duchess told Oprah Winfrey there had been “concerns and conversations” about how dark Prince Archie’s skin might be, while Meghan was pregnant with him.
Retweeting Ship’s post, Morgan wrote: “You should grow a pair and name them too. As for Harry’s pathetic U-turn and attempt to deflect blame onto the media, we should also remind ourselves that for two years the Sussexes let their unsubstantiated claims to Oprah be reported as meaning royals had been racist.”
He also shared a photograoh of the front page of a British tabloid, referring to the “outrage” after the royals were named on national television.
“I’m outraged too - that the rest of the British media hasn’t done the same! Why should British people be barred from knowing what Dutch people know about OUR Royal Family?” he captioned his post on X (formerly Twitter).
Scobie defended Endgame after Morgan branded it a “spiteful, lie-filled book” during an appearance on ITV’s This Morning with hosts Craig Doyle and Alison Hammond.
“I am a mixed race member of the press pack and I have got something different to say about it,” he said, referring to the royal family.
Appearing to fight back tears, an emotional Scobie added: “It’s the deepest dive on the subject [of race] I think any royal correspondent has ever done, and not one article that is out there today has written a word about that section.”
