Prince Harry \201cWill Not Approve\201d of The Crown’s Portrayal of Princess Diana, Expert Says

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published August 1, 2022

Things are getting (even more) complicated in the Netflix arena—Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the streaming service, the same streaming service that carries a little show you may have heard of called The Crown, which details the (sometimes unflattering) inner workings of the royal family and its members. Season four introduced viewers to Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana, and season five, set to premiere later this year, will star Elizabeth Debicki as the late Princess of Wales—and Harry will “not approve” of the show’s portrayal of his beloved mother, according to royal expert Tina Brown.

“I don’t think that the next season of The Crown is going to be something that Harry is going to seriously approve of in the sense of the way it depicts his mother,” says Brown, per The Daily Express. “We don’t know how it will depict his mother. But right now, there’s really nothing that’s come out about their mother that they like.”

Season five of the show will bring forth the later years and tragic death of Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997. Netflix, The Daily Express reports, has already faced resistance from the Palace, and Debicki’s forthcoming portrayal could make this season its most controversial yet.

Corrin’s portrayal of Diana earned the star an Emmy nomination, in which Diana’s eating disorder and relationships with the royal family were dissected. Brown says Harry—who admitted to watching some of the show in his interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021—will be especially uncomfortable with his mother’s role in season five. The royal family even beyond Harry, she says, are “very unhappy” about The Crown going ahead, and have made attempts to disrupt filming whenever possible.

“Whenever they can, they stop The Crown filming in locations where they have an influence,” Brown says. “For instance, [Eton College] refused to let them film there, which was undoubtedly about recognizing William’s feelings that, you know, they weren’t going to have it. So, they’ve shown their displeasure by making it quite clear that they are not happy, and we’ll give it no help.”

The fifth season of The Crown will largely focus on the late 1990s, and season six will wrap up the show in the early 21st century.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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