We live in thrilling times if you’re a fan of Princess Diana biopics. First, there’s the upcoming season of The Crown, in which Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki will portray Diana during the last years of her marriage to Prince Charles (she’s taking over for Emma Corrin, who sweetly played younger Diana). And of course, there’s Spencer, the buzzed-about new film starring Kristen Stewart as the Princess during the fateful Christmas weekend that signaled the end of her marriage to Charles, which hits theaters November 5.
But according to royal expert Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty magazine who interviewed Diana and knew her personally, the late Princess wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about the portrayals as the public is.
Diana with young William and Harry in 1995
First, says Seward in an interview with Express UK, Diana would perhaps take umbrage with how her marriage is shown on-screen. “She would be very sad that people think she and Charles never loved each other; that wasn’t true,” says Seward. “She would be horrified at the way she’s portrayed now.”
Seward also had some unkind words for Spencer, directed by Pablo Larraín who also directed Jackie about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The film, which is less of a biopic and more of an avant garde reflection on the pressures Princess Diana faced within the royal family, is apparently not very accurate to the image Diana wanted to give off, according to Seward.
“They’ve piled every bad thing into one weekend which is taking poetic license a little far,” she told the publication. “I don’t think Diana saw herself as a victim at all. She saw herself as a single woman before the end of her marriage.”
Diana and Prince Charles
And while we tend to think of Diana as someone who played by her own rules, Seward says that isn’t how Diana would have characterized her role in the royal family. “She would not want to be remembered as someone who was destructive towards the monarchy,” Seward said.
Spencer hits theaters November 5, if you’re inclined to see for yourself how it approaches the subject of this beloved, complicated woman.