LONDON: Buckingham Palace officials said on Friday that they were exploring all options, including legal, as King Charles III and Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, were embroiled in a race row after the Dutch edition of a controversial new book named them erroneously.
Omid Scobie's 'Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival' hit bookshelves around the world this week and repeated an allegation that senior members of the British royal family had raised questions around the skin colour of Prince Archie, the son of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle born in May 2019.
Meghan, of African American heritage, first raised the issue of an unnamed royal referencing their first-born's skin colour during the couple's infamous interview with Oprah Winfrey over two years ago.
While the main edition of Scobie's new book chose not to name the senior royals, the Dutch edition included the allegation that it was King Charles and Kate who had discussed the skin colour.
"We're exploring all options," a palace spokesperson told the BBC.
Initially, most UK media outlets were holding off naming the royals but it has been dominating headlines after TalkTV aired the names of Charles and Kate from the Dutch book fiasco.
"Some individual has written some rumour and scuttlebutt that has made various claims about His Majesty the King that are, frankly, completely unproven," UK Security Minister Tom Tugendhat told TalkTV when asked about the row.
"The King's done a brilliant job for us, not just in the last year since he's been King, but he's been absolutely fantastic for many, many years in arguing in the interests of the British people as Prince of Wales. So frankly I see this as just rumour, hearsay and an attempt to disparage somebody who's served our country with enormous dignity and enormous grace for many, many years," he said.
The Dutch publisher of the new book, Xander Uitgevers, said it had been pulled from shelves in the Netherlands due to an "error."
Scobie, meanwhile, has been insisting it was not part of some publicity stunt and lamented that the row had "overshadowed" the release of his book.
"All of this is frustrating because it feeds into something that couldn't be further from the truth. And also, quite frankly, I've always felt the names weren't needed to have this discussion," he told the BBC.
The writer, who has previously co-authored another book on Harry and Meghan entitled 'Finding Freedom', is widely seen as a cheerleader of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex ever since they stepped back from frontline royalty back in 2020 and relocated to California.
He has, however, claimed that he did not speak to or interview the couple for the latest book.
Representatives of Prince Harry and Meghan have not commented on the book's release or the ensuing row.
During her interview in March 2021, Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that Harry had been asked by an unnamed family member "how dark" their son Archie's skin might be.
At the time, Buckingham Palace called the allegation "concerning" and Prince William's spokesperson categorically stated that "racism has no place in our society."
In a subsequent interview, his younger brother Prince Harry was asked whether he would describe the comment about his son's skin colour as racist and he told ITV that he wouldn't, adding that there was a difference between "racism" and "unconscious bias."