Queen's friend says The Crown ‘would have destroyed’ the late monarch; Prince Harry urged to drop Netflix deal
The Duke of Sussex faces a huge dilemma after a friend of the Queen revealed the latest season of Netflix hit The Crown would have “destroyed” the late monarch.
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Netflix’s latest season of The Crown and its “vicious” plot “would have destroyed” the Queen, one of her friends has said.
The fifth series, which airs next month, shows Prince Charles lobbying the prime minister, John Major, to force his mother to abdicate in 1991.
Last week Mr Majors’s spokesman slammed the show as “a barrel-load of nonsense”.
According to The Sun, the ex-PM spoke of his fears the “damaging and malicious fiction” could unfairly harm the reputation of King Charles III.
Now a close friend of the Queen has given an insight into what the late monarch may have thought about the show.
She told The Times: “I’m horrified by what is going on with Netflix and how they are vilifying the royal family. It is vicious. It’s as if they’re trying to destroy the royal family.
“It would have destroyed her.”
It comes as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary has been delayed amid backlash over The Crown.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s highly anticipated show – set to tell their “love story” – has been pushed back until 2023, it is understood.
The source added: “If I had my family being vilified like that, I wouldn’t take a penny (from Netflix).”
The new series of The Crown covers 1990 to 1997, as the marriage of Charles, played by Dominic West, 53, and Diana, portrayed by Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, 32, continues to fall apart.
Writing in The Sun, Ingrid Seward branded the explosive show “greedy” and “hurtful”, especially for Prince Harry, Prince William and King Charles.
She wrote: “It’s hurtful to so many people, especially Diana’s sons, William and Harry. They should just leave it alone. It’s in very bad taste and a huge shame. It’s upsetting for quite a lot of people because the events are still raw.”
A production source previously told Deadline that the sixth season of the show would feature the before and after the crash – but the exact time of the car crash will not be shown.
The royal biographer added: “The earlier depictions in The Crown were quite tasteful but now it’s going into fantasy. I think it’s a great shame they didn’t end the series earlier. But they’ve become greedy and need to keep people signing up for Netflix.”
Earlier this week it was revealed Netflix looked like it would defy Dame Judi Dench by refusing to add a factual disclaimer to The Crown episodes.
Insiders say the streaming giant was “panicked and rocked” after the Oscar winner, 87, blasted its fictionalised accounts of royal life as “cruelly unjust”.
However they have now added a disclaimer to its marketing, saying the show is a “fictional dramatisation”, and “inspired by real-life events”.
Netflix said the show’s title page describes it as fictionalised drama but confirmed it will not add a warning to individual episodes.
A spokesman for Netflix said: “The Crown has always been presented as a drama based on historical events.
“Series five is a fictional dramatisation, imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinised and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians.”
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Originally published as Queen's friend says The Crown ‘would have destroyed’ the late monarch; Prince Harry urged to drop Netflix deal
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