'Endgame' Dutch Translator Says King Charles, Kate's Names Were In Manuscript Despite Author's Denial
The Dutch translator of "Endgame" broke her silence after the copies in Holland were pulled from shelves due to an alleged error in translation.
Saskia Peeters spoke with MailOnline from her home in Arnhem. She denied Omid Scobie's claim that he never mentioned the names of the royals who allegedly raised concerns about the skin color of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's then-unborn child in his manuscript.
"As a translator, I translate what is in front of me," Peeters said. "The names of the royals were there in black and white. I did not add them. I just did what I was paid to do and that was translate the book from English into Dutch."
Her statement was in stark contrast to what Scobie said on ITV. The "Finding Freedom" author insisted that he never dropped the names of the two alleged racist royals. "I never submitted a book that had those names in it," he said.
Peeters did not say when she received the manuscript from Dutch publisher Xander Uitgevers. According to her, the pages were distributed between herself and fellow translator Nellie Keukellaar-van Rijsbergern.
She admitted that she was shocked and nervous when the controversy surrounding the names of the royals made headlines. She was also surprised at Scobie's denial and insistence that he never dropped names in his manuscript.
"I don't know why he would say that," Peeters said of Scobie's reaction after King Charles and Kate Middleton made headlines for being the alleged racist royals in the Dutch version of "Endgame." "I have been translating for many years. This is the first time anything like this has happened. This is not something I wanted to be involved in. This has been upsetting. I do not want to talk about it much more."
Paul Janse, who runs a book translation service, showed support for Peeters. According to him, it was "unthinkable," and it "doesn't make sense" that a translator would add names not present in the English version.
Dutch royal journalist Rick Evers, who was the first to spot the names, was also not convinced that the names leaked due to translation error. Instead, he pointed out the missing paragraphs between the two versions.
"If you compare the English and the Dutch version, you just see very clearly that there is just missing two paragraphs. One of the paragraphs has been changed with one sentence to say that the writer is not allowed to say the specific names. So this cannot be a translation error," Evers said.
Meanwhile, Scobie doubled down on his take that it wasn't his fault King Charles and Middleton's names leaked as the alleged racist royals. In a tense interview with Victoria Derbyshire for the BBC, the host asked if he wanted to apologize to the royal family for the names that were "out there."
"It's not for me to apologize because I still want to know what's happened," Scobie said.
The Netherlands publisher simply referred to the problem as "an error that occurred in the Dutch edition" and did not specifically state that it was a translation issue.
"Endgame" hit the shelves Tuesday.
