Royal author Omid Scobie was accused of a stunt when the two were named, apparently by accident, in the Dutch edition of his book.
Scobie, 42, was reduced to swearing on his own life and that of his family that he had not deliberately included the names when he appeared on Newsnight on Thursday evening.
His book claims the two royals expressed “concern” to Prince Harry about how dark his son Prince Archie’s skin would be.
As the Royals concerned are unable to defend themselves and the claims are widely suspected of being untrue, we decided not to identify them.
We asked our readers: “Is it fair that the Royals concerned have been named? and were met with an overwhelming response of 88% saying “No” and just 12% saying “yes”.
Scobie said he was “hurt” by the suggestion her had included the names as a stunt when he appeared live on Newsnight.
He dismissed the idea claiming it was a conspiracy theory fostered by those who believe he is “in cahoots” with Meghan Markle, adding: “It couldn’t be further from the truth’.
He refused to apologise for the racism scandal that has erupted, claiming: “I’m as frustrated as everyone else. The book I wrote, the book I edited, the book I signed off on, did not have names in it.”
Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on the BBC Two show, Scobie was asked to say “hand on heart” that the Dutch translation was not a stunt designed to sell his book.
He raised his hands, shaking his head, and replied: “On my life, on my family’s life.”
Ms Derbyshire said: “You don’t have to go that far, it’s fine.”
Scobie went on: “No it’s serious because I feel hurt by some of the things I’ve seen that have suggested a conspiracy theory, that this is some kind of publicity stunt, and ‘I’m in cahoots with my pal’ and nonsense like that because it feeds into something that couldn’t be further from the truth”.
Offered the chance to apologise to the royal family he refused saying: “It’s not for me to apologise because I still want to know what’s happened.”
Daily Express columnist Leo McKinstry stood squarely behind our decision not to name the royals.
He said: “We believe such a step would be grossly unfair, since the Royals have no right of reply and cannot easily take actions for libel through the courts.
“By tradition, they do not publicly comment on attacks against them, a policy encapsulated in the dictum “never complain, never explain.”
“This entire episode has been blown ridiculously out of proportion….the alleged incident has been cynically weaponised by Meghan and Harry.”
“The idea that the two Royals in the frame are secret racists is absurd.”
