The Crown has entered its sixth and final season, which covers one of the biggest Royal news events in modern history and one of the most earth-shattering celebrity deaths of a generation. It may be well-trodden ground – from 2006's The Queen to 2022's Channel 4 documentary series Investigating Diana: Death in Paris – but The Crown still manages to keep us on the edge of our seat and throw in a few surprises too.
It takes viewers from the start of Diana's sun-soaked summer on superyachts, to the stressful final days in Paris before the car crash. The first half of the final series explores what happened between Diana, Dodi, and Mohamed Al-Fayed (turns of there were three people in that potential marriage, too) as well as all of the goings on with The Firm back home. Here are the biggest eyebrow raisers and jaw droppers the latest episodes.
1. Dodi Fayed dated someone at the same time as Diana
When Diana first properly meets her soon-to-be boyfriend Dodi Fayed, the son of Harrods owner Mohamed El-Fayed, he is already engaged to be married to American model Kelly Fisher. Fisher is suspicious of Diana to say least, especially considering how Dodi suddenly abandons her weeks before their wedding to spend time with the Princess of Wales on a yacht in the South of France. Fisher does eventually join them, but she is remanded to a separate yacht – so that Dodi can flirt, basically. All at the behest of... Mohamed Al-Fayed.
2. Mohamed Al-Fayed demanded that Dodi win over Princess Diana
Oh yes. Dodi may have been interested in Diana based on his own free will, but The Crown season six portrays their romance as heavily influenced by Mohamed Al-Fayed, who had long been obsessed with the monarchy and was gunning for a British citizenship. "This is your chance to finally make me proud of you," Mohamed tells his son in episode one as he encourages him to forget about his impending marriage.
3. He asked Dodi for 'progress reports' on whether he and Diana had slept together
The Crown season six shows how Diana and Dodi do indeed hit it off, with some not-so-gentle cajoling courtesy of Mohamed, and eventually choose to return to the yacht together, in secret, without their families. Dodi has not yet plucked up the courage to call it quits with his fiancée, but has managed to successfully woo Diana. Mohamed is thrilled, but wants confirmation they've slept together, and The Crown even claims that he asked the maid on his yacht to give him details. She tells him that Dodi and Diana are staying in the same room, and Mohamed is pleased. Too pleased, arguably.
4. And set up the £250,000 paparazzi shot of them kissing
On this second, more intimate yacht trip, Dodi and Diana were papped kissing on the boat, which was absolutely massive for the British tabloids – the Sunday Mirror allegedly paid £250,000 for first rights to the front page picture. But what's most scandalous is that The Crown leads us to believe that the shot was set up by Mohamed Al-Fayed himself. After hearing that Diana and Dodi are intimate, he calls upon his team to find a talented paparazzo to get the perfect shot, cementing their relationship in the public eye.
5. Charles is shown to stage a retaliation photoshoot with the boys
Back in Britain, most of the scenes involving the Royal Family concern how they want to "respond" to Diana's antics at sea. After the Diana and Dodi kissing picture is released, The Crown portrays Charles as wanting to respond. His team tell him to stage a photoshoot with the boys in response, so his character drags them out onto the moors for some good PR.
6. William and Harry absolutely hated staged photographs as kids
In this season, William and Harry are made uncomfortable by the paparazzi following them and Princess Diana multiple times. At one point, Diana bribes the paps with a picture of her in her leopard print swimsuit so they will leave the family alone for a while, to try and soothe William. As a result, the boys also loathe any staged photoshoots, saying that their friends at school mock them for it – especially when Charles wears his kilt.
7. Diana didn't want to marry Dodi – and turned down his proposal
Much was made of Diana and Dodi's whirlwind romance in the summer of 1997, with many assuming the pair were on the precipice of getting engaged just before they died. But The Crown season six says: nope, don't think so!
Diana seems to find Dodi's romancing to be a little much throughout the season, and when he eventually proposes to her the night they die, she says no. This is helped by the fact that, according the The Crown, William and Harry asked her not to marry him, and she reassures them that she has no intention to do so. The series shows how she denies him gently in their Imperial Suite at the Ritz, and the pair dine and console each other, before getting in the car to head to Dodi's apartment. Sadly, they never reach it.
8. The Queen didn't want to respond to Diana's death
After news breaks of Diana's death, the Royal Family isolate themselves in Balmoral and attempt to deal with the shock. Those alive in 1997 will recall that their silence was not taken well by the British public. In The Crown, Charles urges Queen Elizabeth II to issue a public statement about her death. "I'd rather not be lectured on how to grieve or show emotion," she tells Charles. Queen Elizabeth did eventually make a speech, five days after Diana died, but she was shown to be very reluctant at first.
9. Prince William disappeared for 14 hours after Diana's death
In the days following Princess Diana's death, William and Harry are bereft and remain largely silent. At one point, Prince William disappears into the grounds of Balmoral and doesn't return for 14 hours. Search parties are sent out for him, but he returns on his own, soaked by the rain. Charles asks if he's alright, and he shrugs him off, responding, "Fine." The Crown paints this as one of the factors that influenced the Queen's change of heart in publicly addressing Diana's death.
