Cruel, Untrue & Damaging The Crown Under Attack

The TV show is slammed for twisting the truth for profit

- Judy Kean

In its first three series, hit drama series The Crown was accused of “bending a few facts” when it came to depicting the lives of the royal family. But now, the fourth series of the Netflix show has been slammed for the inaccurate and insensitive way it portrays the relationship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Some of Charles’ closest friends have launched blistering attacks on the show, saying it is exploiting the family’s pain for financial gain and twisting what really happened.

One furious friend of the prince storms, “This is drama and entertainment for commercial ends being made with no regard to the actual people involved who are having their lives hijacked and exploited. It’s dragging up things that happened during very difficult times 25 or 30 years ago without a thought for anyone’s feelings. That isn’t right or fair, particularly when so many of the things being depicted don’t represent the truth.”

The fourth series covers the years from 1979 to 1990, with the main storyline being Charles, now 72, meeting and marrying Diana, and the subsequent disintegration of their marriage. According to the show, Charles was cruel to Diana pretty much straight after they walked down the aisle and carried on his relationship with ex-girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles (now his wife) throughout their marriage.

Royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith says viewers need to be reminded that The Crown is a work of fiction, and “the level of invention has been growing. While the earlier seasons were period pieces, series four is recent history, so it seems crueler in its false depictions.