Kate Middleton and Prince William's red carpet display is 'emotionally revealing' with the Princess of Wales appearing 'vulnerable', body language expert claims - amid fallout from Omid Scobie race row

Kate Middleton and Prince William's red carpet appearance at the Royal Variety Performance amid a week of turmoil for The Firm was 'emotionally revealing', according to a body language expert.

UK-based Judi James told FEMAIL the Prince of Wales's 'steering hand' as he and the Princess arrived hand-in-hand at the Royal Albert Hall this evening appeared to be gratefully accepted by his wife, who seemed 'vulnerable'.

The 41-year-old royal couple's appearance at the event comes after The Firm was plunged back into a race row reignited by Omid Scobie's book Endgame, which was published this week.

Referring to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's claims in 2021 that members of the royal family had allegedly expressed 'concerns' over the colour of Prince Archie's skin before he was born, Scobie suggested there were two members of the family who had engaged in such discussions.

Initially Scobie did not name the two people alleged to have made the comments - but shortly after Endgame was published in the Netherlands, the Dutch version was pulled from shelves and pulped after it named the two royals alleged to have raised concerns.

 The pair identified in the book were named widely by media organisations around the world tonight, including the Guardian and The Times, as King Charles and Kate. 

Amid the fallout from the controversy, about which the Palace is said to be 'considering all options', the Prince and Princess of Wales put on a brave face as they attended the Royal Variety Performance at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington.

Dressed in a stunning £1,745 teal gown from Safiyaa, with flared sleeves, statement shoulders and a diamanté high neck, the Princess beamed as she arrived at the event with William.

However, according to Ms James, the couple's red carpet appearance showed signs that the Prince of Wales is acting as a support for his wife.

She said: 'William’s gestures here look deliberate as he ‘presents’ his beautiful wife to the world on the red carpet. 

'He uses a steering hand but he also extends his arm and hand in a romantic gesture of support which she accepts, throwing him a grateful-looking smile as she does so.

'This is not their usual A-list red carpet cosplay. Following the insults and rumours from Scobie’s book the couple seem to have taken a regal approach that is also very human and more emotionally revealing in terms of their shared love than ever before.

'As a body language statement it appears to nail all the negative comments, from the suggestion of being dull to the ‘Stepford wife’ quote. 

'Kate does look slightly vulnerable here, with less of a statuesque posture than normal for her red carpet appearances but her smile becomes warm as she connects with William with more shared eye contact than usual.'   

As the royal family reels over the claims made in the Dutch version of Endgame, it remains unclear how the royal names made their way into the book. 

Today, Scobie appeared on ITV's This Morning where he insisted the English version of the book did not contain the names when it was sent to the translator.

However, Saskia Peeters, who translated the book from English to Dutch, told MailOnline ealrier today: 'As a translator, I translate what is in front of me.

'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.'

When told the book's author Scobie had denied the names were in his manuscript Mrs Peters said: 'I don't know why he would say that.

'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.'