'The Crown' Creator Has "Not Read a Word" of Prince Harry's 'Spare'

It's not as savage as it sounds.

Peter Morgan accepts the award for outstanding Writing For A Drama Series for The Crown attends the Netflix celebration of the 73rd Emmy Awards at 180 The Strand on September 19, 2021 in London, England.
(Image credit: Getty)

The Crown creator Peter Morgan has obviously done a boatload of research in order to put together a dramatized version of the Royal Family's real-life recent history.

As such, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Morgan would have been first in the bookstores on Jan. 10, when Prince Harry's bombshell memoir Spare was released.

But despite preparing to launch The Crown season 6 into the world on Nov. 16, which traces the royals' life around the time of Princess Diana's death onwards, Morgan has not even touched Spare—by his own admission.

"I’ve not read a word of it. Not that I wouldn’t be interested," the screenwriter just told Variety. "But I didn’t want his voice to inhabit my thinking too much. I’ve got a lot of sympathy with him, a lot of sympathy. But I didn’t want to read his book."

Spare would have made amazing source material for the Netflix show's next and last season, given that Harry features heavily in the new episodes, and that he gave a detailed first-hand account of his entire life in the book. But it's also understandable that Morgan thought reading it would color his perspective too much.

A new trailer for season 6 was released yesterday, Oct. 26, and the tone is obviously as somber as the subject matter calls for. It depicts scenes from the last days of Diana's life, her vacation with boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and the incessant attention from the press.

The clip also shows young Princes William and Harry calling their mom that summer and William asking her, "Mummy, are you OK?" Elsewhere, Elizabeth Debicki as Diana finds a card from Fayed which reads, "Paris next week?" and is seen getting into a car amid shouting from royal fans and members of the press. The trailer also touches on the aftermath of her death.

Iris Goldsztajn
Morning Editor

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle and Shape. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.