The sale of a new book about the Royal Family has been halted in the Netherlands.
Xander, the publishers of the Dutch translation of Omid Scobie’s Endgame, have put sales of the book on hold “temporarily” over what it calls an “error”.
They said in a statement: “[We are] temporarily withdrawing the book by Omid Scobie from sale. An error occurred in the Dutch translation and is currently being rectified.”
It comes amid reports that the translation appears to name a member of the Royal Family who allegedly questioned what colour Harry and Meghan’s son Archie’s skin would be when he was born.
The Duchess of Sussex claimed in her March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey that a member of the Royal Family raised “concerns” about Archie’s skin colour.
The claim sparked a rare response from the royals, with Prince William saying: “We are very much not a racist family,” in response to questions about the allegations.
In a statement following the interview, the Royal Family said that “whilst some recollections may vary”, the issues brought up in the interview were “concerning” and would “be addressed”.
Mr Scobie told Dutch media that he did not mention a name in his new book – which was published in the UK on Tuesday.
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“The book is in several languages, and unfortunately I do not speak Dutch. But if there are translation errors, the publisher will correct them,” he told chat show, RTL Boulevard.
“I wrote the English version. There was no version from me in which names were mentioned.”
Mr Scobie’s book claims that, in the aftermath of the Oprah interview, Meghan wrote a letter to King Charles expressing concern about unconscious bias in the Royal Family.
In the UK version of Endgame, Mr Scobie wrote that in her letter to the King, Meghan revealed “two identities” of those “involved in the exchange”.
“Laws in the United Kingdom prevent me from reporting who they were,” he added in the book.
Mr Scobie previously wrote Finding Freedom, a biography of the Sussexes’ split from the royal family.
The 42-year-old author said his new book aimed to explore the monarchy’s “fight for survival”.
He denied interviewing the Duchess of Sussex for the book, after Meghan’s legal team admitted in her legal battle with Associated Newspapers – publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday – that she had permitted a close friend to communicate with him and his co-author for Finding Freedom.
Image: Endgame claims Meghan sent a letter to the King to address her concerns following her 2020 interview with Oprah Winfrey
Mr Scobie said in an article with The Times newspaper about Endgame that he was “not friends” with the duchess, despite them having mutual acquaintances.
“I have mutual friends with (Meghan), and that definitely helps with getting information and breaking details,” he said.
Sky News has approached Archewell, the organisation founded by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for a response.
Buckingham Palace has also been contacted, but they have declined to comment.
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.