“Nothing other than damaging and malicious fiction,” is how former Conservative Prime Minister John Major described The Crown.
The hit TV show – the final chapter of which will be landing on Netflix on December 14 – has captivated audiences since it first premiered in 2016: many viewers see The Crown as a sort of quasi-documentary; a way of learning about the British royal family via a captivating drama. But this is a mistake – showrunner Peter Morgan is known for taking liberal artistic license with the plot and reimagining behind the scenes events.
As you might expect, over the years the royal family has been wary of giving The Crown its approval. And, as each episode gets closer to the modern day, the stories that Morgan is depicting are increasingly likely to still be quite raw. It would be "torturous" for the family to see more recent seasons, said Majesty magazine editor, Ingrid Seward, to Vanity Fair. "None of the royal family will watch."
Nevertheless, occasionally over the last seven years, certain royals have indicated not only their awareness of the show, but that they may in fact watch and possibly even enjoy it. Here we look at some of the royal family's comments about The Crown.
Prince Harry
Fans of @thecrownnetflix will be pleased to know Prince Harry fact-checks the show. 😂👑 #Colbert #Spare pic.twitter.com/LZjItrfLMx
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) January 11, 2023
It was a comment that delighted fans of the show around the world. Last January, during the press tour for his autobiography, Spare, Prince Harry revealed to US chat show host Stephen Colbert that he had watched The Crown over the years.
"The older stuff and the more recent stuff. Yes, I do actually fact check it. Which, by the way, is another reason why it's so important that history has it right," he said. "They don't pretend to be news – it's fictional, but it's loosely based on the truth. It gives you a rough idea about what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else – what can come from that."
"I'm way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family or my wife or myself."
Prince William
On the other hand, Prince William has apparently not seen the hit series. Speaking on The Graham Norton Show in 2021, Olivia Colman, who played Queen Elizabeth in The Crown's third and fourth season, said she met William at a dinner: "He asked what I was doing at the moment before he quickly added, 'Actually, I know what you're doing,'" she said. "I was so excited and asked, 'Have you watched it?' His answer was a firm, 'No.' But he was very charming and very lovely."
More recently, a friend of William's told the Daily Beast that the Prince is likely to find future episodes of The Crown "sickening".
“It’s incredibly hurtful to have his mother exploited over and over again in this tawdry fashion by Netflix," said the friend. "He won’t watch it, but he will be totally sickened by it.
“William is angry about a lot of things in connection with Harry. [Harry's] decision to work with Netflix, who have ruthlessly exploited the family, is certainly one of them.” (According to The Daily Beast, the offices of King Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry did not respond to a request for comment).
King Charles
King Charles' relationship with Princess Diana was one of the leading storylines in season five, and it certainly made for uncomfortable viewing. The show followed the tragic breakdown of their marriage, and dramatised elements of Diana's eating disorder.
There were reports that King Charles was not best pleased about the timing of the release of the series, as it coincided with his ascension to the throne after the Queen's death in September 2022. Particularly as it didn't exactly paint him in the best light.
"Certainly The Crown, along with the imminent release of Prince Harry's biography, have been bumps in the road for the start of the king's reign," royal expert Katie Nicholl told Entertainment Weekly last November. "In the case of The Crown, the concern, certainly by the King, is that the younger generation, the Netflix generation, may well tune into the series and not be able to distinguish fact from fiction and perhaps may base their opinion of Charles based on his past and what they've seen represented in The Crown."
However, there have been other reports that indicate that King Charles is unconcerned, if not even slightly amused, by The Crown. According to Scottish MP Anas Sarwar, at the state opening of Scottish Parliament in October 2021, Charles said something along the lines of "Hello, nice to meet you all. I'm nowhere near how they portray me on Netflix."
Then, when Dominic West was cast as Charles in series five and six of The Crown, he offered to step down as an ambassador of The Prince's Trust, one of King Charles' leading charities which focuses on helping vulnerable young people. However West received a letter from Charles' private secretary declining his resignation. It said "You do what you like, you’re an actor. It’s nothing to do with us," West paraphrased, speaking to Radio Times Magazine. "I think that’s probably how [Charles] regards it."
Camilla Parker Bowles
Queen Camilla has been more relaxed in her approach to the show. According to West, when he saw Camilla at a party in 2021 she addressed him as "Your Majesty" – the fifth season hadn't yet been released, so she must have been referencing his casting.
In March 2022, Queen Camilla also had some fun when Emerald Fennell, the actor, writer and director who played Camilla in series four and five, attended one of Camilla's events. "It’s very reassuring to know that if I should fall off my perch at any moment, my fictional alter-ego is here to take over," said Parker Bowles during her speech. "So Emerald, be prepared!"According to a friend of the royal speaking to Vanity Fair, Camilla was likely going to watch the fourth series despite some of the content being potentially quite hard going: “I imagine she’ll be tuning in with a glass of red wine to watch it, she has seen the previous series,” said the source. “She has a wonderful sense of humour and this won’t fuss her in the slightest.” The series reimagined the courtship and unhappy marriage of Diana and Charles, portraying the couple's love affairs.
Queen Elizabeth II
Perhaps it goes without saying, but the Queen (and the extremely rational Princess Anne) apparently never watched the show. Several years ago, when the Queen's cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson spoke to Vanity Fair, she explained: “The queen’s view was, 'Why on earth would I watch a fictitious drama about my own life?'”
Nevertheless there have been a few stories that indicate that the late monarch did watch some episodes of the show – an image we're all too keen to seize upon. Vanessa Kirby, who played the Queen's sister Princess Margaret in season one and two of The Crown, told Harper's Bazaar: "A friend of mine was at a party and didn’t know anyone, so he sidled up to this group who were talking about The Crown.
"One girl said, 'Well, my granny watches it and really likes it.' It slowly dawned on him that the girl was Eugenie [the daughter of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew] and her granny was the Queen... We’ve heard that Philip doesn’t watch it – he can’t be bothered."
Princess Eugenie
Kirby's story could in fact be true (fingers crossed), as not only did Princess Eugenie's maternal grandmother, Sarah Barrantes, pass away in 1998, when Netflix was still a DVD-by-mail rental company, her comments have precedence. During an event at the China Exchange in London in May 2017, Eugenie said: "I did watch a couple of episodes of The Crown. It is filmed beautifully. The music is wonderful, the story is beautiful. You feel very proud to watch it. I can’t speak for everyone but that’s how I felt when I watched it."
