Prince William Reportedly ‘Absolutely Furious’ Over Royal Book Release

The publication of Omid Scobie’s book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival, has stoked tensions at Buckingham Palace, as a source told ET that Prince William is extremely angry about the controversy that has resurfaced.

There was already widespread distrust within the royal family against Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and their motives, but these feelings have been rekindled, the source explained. Due to the Dutch version of Endgame outing two royal family members alleged to have questioned the skin color of Harry and Meghan’s son, Archie, Scobie’s book was pulled from the Netherlands’ shelves on Tuesday’s publication day.

Moreover, the same source told ET that Harry and William’s relationship has remained strained, and there is little chance of reconciliation in the near future. Sources said family members are furious about the allegations that are once again engulfing the royal family.

In a statement to ET, Xander Uitgevers, the Dutch publisher of Endgame, said, “the rectified edition of [Endgame] by Omid Scobie will be in bookstores on [Dec. 8].” Regarding the Dutch publisher’s decision to remove the book from shelves, the spokesperson said it was pulled “due to an error that occurred in the Dutch edition.”

In an interview with the BBC, Scobie said the manuscript he submitted “didn’t have names in it.” He also said an investigation is being conducted into how the names ended up in the Dutch version of his book.

Royal couple William and wife Kate Middleton avoided questions about the scandal on Thursday while attending the Royal Variety Performance 2023 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Scobie spoke to ET shortly beforehand, explaining why he broached another sensitive topic in his book with regard to accusations about an affair between William and Kate’s former friend, Rose Hanbury.

While Scobie stated that there is no truth to the April 2019 rumors, he found the palace’s handling of the situation interesting. Regarding UK journalists digging around for any sort of evidence that might hint at an extramarital affair, Scobie said, “I found it really interesting to analyze how the palace handled it.” 

“The worst-case scenarios that they feared would happen, you know, just those rumors themselves were going to have enough impact, negatively, on William’s reputation. We still see them [the rumors] trend on Twitter on a regular basis … that’s something that’s incredibly damaging, I think, for William. It probably looks even worse, actually, that there was a kind of willingness to throw Harry under the bus simply to make these things disappear.”