Fury as Netflix’s The Crown to show King Charles’ crumbling marriage to Princess Diana in ‘painful’ detail
THE new series of The Crown is set to dredge up every painful detail of King Charles’s marriage to the late Princess Diana — just as the nation rallies around the new monarch.
It rakes over some of the most intimate aspects of their crumbling marriage in the early 1990s and portrays the then Prince of Wales as petty, cold and deceitful.
The fifth series, which starts on streaming giant Netflix next month, is also likely to upset Prince William who is seen, along with brother Prince Harry, being caught in a psychological tug of war between their royal parents.
A TV insider said: “This couldn’t have come at a more delicate time for the new King and his Queen Consort, particularly as they’re riding high in the minds of the public.
“There’s a sense that Netflix are muckraking over events that took place 30 to 40 years ago, but are still raw for those involved.
“The worst element for the royals is that millions of people around the world will view this series and view it less as a drama and more as a documentary.
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“And attention on the Windsors couldn’t be higher as it’s been just a few weeks since Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and is in the run-up to the King’s coronation.”
Netflix had considered delaying the launch date of series five out of respect for the Queen following her death last month but decided to press ahead.
It covers the years 1990 to 1997. The sixth and final series is being filmed now and is due to stream next year.
Series five will see Princess Diana, played by Elizabeth Debicki, divulging details of her rocky marriage.
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She does so via tape recordings, which featured in the tell-all book on her life by Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story.
The author sent her a series of questions and the responses formed the basis of the biography, which shocked the nation when it was published in 1992.
The couple separated in the same year and they divorced in 1996. A year later, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris with her lover Dodi Al Fayed.
The Crown will be uncomfortable viewing for the whole Royal Family as it paints the late Queen in a cold light and sees Prince William and his brother Prince Harry as collateral between their warring parents Charles and Diana.
Prince William has already said he believes the controversial Panorama interview in which his late mother featured in 1995 should never be aired again.
But Netflix has devoted an entire episode to it.
News of the bombshell scenes featuring the then Prince and Princess of Wales comes after The Sun revealed that the programme will suggest that Prince Philip pursued an affair behind the Queen’s back.
In scenes to be shown in series five, which starts on November 9, he touches hands with high society friend Penny Knatchbull as they go carriage-riding together.
Philip, who died 18 months ago, shares intimate details of his marriage with her, saying that he and the Queen had problems and had “grown in separate directions”.
But the claims were dismissed by royal experts who insisted they were just close friends, adding that the insinuations in The Crown were “cruel and distasteful”.
The new series’ character assassination of Charles, played by Dominic West, is a continuation of the negative light he was shown in during series four of the royal drama, which covered most of the late 1970s and 1980s.
The then Prince of Wales was seen continuing his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles despite the fact they had both married other people.
And as Princess Diana’s fame and popularity grew, he became wildly jealous and resentful and she fell deeper into despair.
The scenes caused observers to warn that the Royal Family was at risk of being smeared by a drama presenting itself as a documentary.
TV presenter and royal biographer Andrew Marr previously said: “If they announced ‘This is drama, it’s fiction, it’s entertainment’, you would say it’s brilliant.
“But when you start to say, ‘This is the truth about these people’s lives’, it’s grossly unfair and really quite sadistic.
“It’s so convincingly acted that people may think it’s the truth — and it isn’t.”
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BULIMIA BEFORE THEIR WEDDING
ON July 29, 1981, the Prince and Princess of Wales appeared to have a fairytale wedding.
But The Crown suggests Diana knew what horrors awaited her in the crowded marriage with Charles and suggested she had one of the worst attacks of bulimia, partly as a result.
The revelation only emerged when she supplied details for Andrew Morton’s book a decade after the wedding.
CONTINUING WITH CAMILLA AFFAIR
IN the early 1990s, Charles was still seeing Camilla Parker Bowles behind the back of Diana — who was well aware of it.
The Netflix drama depicts the princess claiming he is cold to her, a fact all the more painful because she knows how warm he is towards his mistress.
She says: “I’d overhear him on the phone to her and he used a voice I’d never heard him use with me. Tender, caring, adoring.”
A SLUR ON IMAGE OF THE QUEEN
IN scenes from the previous series, the Queen told Charles he would learn to love Diana.
But in the new season of the drama, Her Majesty becomes harsher about the situation as the marriage starts to crumble.
In a shock moment, she is heard saying: “While it is expected of the monarch to be married and produce an heir, being happily married is a preference rather than a requirement.”
PORTRAYS PRINCES IN A TUG OF WAR
ONE scene shows a family dinner on holiday becoming tense.
When Diana says she wants to go shopping, an unimpressed Charles asks the Princes William and Harry: “Does anyone else want to go shopping?”
The boys side with their mum, leaving Charles unhappy.
In another scene, the princess is seen crying while William comforts her, clearly suggesting they are at odds with Charles.
CUTTING SECOND HONEYMOON SHORT
CHARLES and Diana are seen on a yacht in Italy — clearly inspired by their 1991 Med trip that aimed to show them united.
But in The Crown, Charles is unhappy and eventually cuts the second honeymoon short.
Diana tells him: “I even agreed to do the photocall today so the lie could be prepared to the world’s media about what an adoring husband you are, on one condition.
“That you actually ARE one.”
DESPERATION OF PRINCESS DIANA
ONE of the most shocking revelations in Morton’s book was that Diana threw herself down the stairs while she was four months pregnant with Prince William.
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The act, in the presence of Charles and the Queen, was said to be a cry for help.
Although we don’t see the fall in The Crown, Diana states explicitly: “When I was pregnant with William I threw myself down the stairs at Sandringham.”