Charles 'enjoyed' The Crown but new series will be 'uncomfortable'

‘Diana’s ghost can’t ever be laid to rest for them’: Charles once ‘enjoyed’ The Crown but new series will be ‘uncomfortable’- while William and Harry will find plotlines leading up to the mother’s death ‘very real and difficult’, royal expert claims

• Royal author Katie Nicholl claims the monarch, 73, watched the first seasons 
• Expert says the show is focusing on ‘low moment’ in Royal Family’s history 
• New season will dramatise Charles and Diana’s marriage breakdown
• Katie says it will be painful for Harry and William to see what they ‘lived out so publicly’  

King Charles ‘enjoyed’ previous seasons of The Crown but the new series’ storylines will be ‘uncomfortable’ for the monarch, an expert has claimed.

Royal expert Katie Nicholl – who penned The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown – claimed the new episodes leading up to Diana’s tragic death will also be ‘very real and difficult’ for Prince William and Prince Harry as their mother’s ‘ghost can’t ever be laid to rest’.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the royal biographer said the events of the 1990s was a ‘low moment’ for the Royal Family.

The show is expected to pick up in the early 1990s and storylines will include Charles and Diana’s marriage breakdown, the late royal’s controversial Panorama interview and the notorious ‘tampongate’ phone call between the King and Queen Consort.

King Charles ‘enjoyed’ the older seasons of The Crown, according to royal expert Katie Nicholl. The monarch, 73, pictured in  Glasgow on October 13, 2022

The new series of The Crown will dramatise the end of Charles and Diana’s marriage. Pictured: a still from the drama showing the couple – played by Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki – in crisis talks with The Queen, played by Imelda Staunton

Royal expert Katie Nicholl said the new series will be ‘very difficult and real’ for Prince Harry and Prince William. The brothers pictured at Windsor Castle on September 10, 2022

Katie said: ‘We don’t know if the King is going to watch this series. I can tell you, that he’s watched previous seasons of The Crown and enjoyed it. 

‘I think the last series was a little too close to the bone as well.’

The last season of The Crown – which starred Emma Corrin as Princess Diana and Josh O’Connor as Prince of Wales – suggested that Charles never stopped seeing Camilla Parker Bowles, even after he got engaged.

What’s more, the expert claims Prince William, 40, and Prince Harry, 38, will find the dramatisation of their mother’s final years ‘incredibly hard’. 

The expert said the brothers feel as though their mother’s ‘ghost can’t be laid to rest’. Princess Diana pictured with Prince William and Prince Harry at the Heads of State VE Remembrance Service in Hyde Park on May 7, 1995

The new series will dramatise Princess Diana’s controversial Newsnight interview. Elizabeth Debicki pictured in the trailer

Katie continued: ‘This is a period that they had to live out so publicly. We heard Harry talk about the very real impact it’s had on his life, and William as well.

‘There is a sense that, really, their mother’s ghost can’t ever be laid to rest for them.

‘I think [that] is really still something that’s very real and very difficult for them.’ 

In May 2021, Prince Harry revealed during his appearance on Apple TV’s The Me You Can’t See mental health series that everything felt tense’ when he travelled to London ‘because of what happened to my mum, and because of what I experienced and what I saw’. 

Meanwhile, Prince William fought back tears as he mentioned his mother in an emotional speech when he unveiled the Manchester arena attack memorial earlier this year.

Katie Nicholl said the show is getting a ‘little close to the bone’ for King Charles. His relationship with the Queen Consort – played by Olivia Williams – will feature in the new series of the show.

The royal expert stressed that the last years of their mother’s life was ‘a period that Harry and William had to live out so publicly’. Senan West pictured playing Prince William in the teaser trailer

The father-of-three said: ‘As someone who lives with his own grief, I also know that what often matters most to the bereaved is that those we have lost are not forgotten.

‘There is comfort in remembering. In acknowledging that, while taken horribly soon, they lived. They changed our lives. They were loved, and they are loved.’ 

Diana’s tragic death in a car crash in Paris in 1997 will be covered in The Crown but is not expected to feature until the final season – which is currently being filmed.

Earlier this week, the show’s creator Peter Morgan hit back at critics who accused series of ‘exploiting’ the Royal Family.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Peter acknowledged that the new season – which lands on the streaming platform next month – doesn’t shy away from the Royal Family’s ‘difficult time’ in the 1990s.

Describing how King Charles ‘will almost certainly have painful memories’ of that period, the screenwriter said: ‘That doesn’t mean that, with the benefit of hindsight, history will be unkind to him, or the monarchy.’

Meanwhile Elizabeth Debicki – who has been cast as Diana in the new series – said the storylines have been handled with ‘sensitivity and truth and complexity’.

The Crown teaser trailer showed Elizabeth Debicki in an exact replica of Diana’s ‘revenge dress’ – complete with a fitted V-neck bodice, off-shoulder cut and sheer train. 

The new series, due to be screened next month, shows Charles lobbying Prime Minister John Major in a bizarre attempt to force his mother’s abdication. Pictured, the pair together in 1994

Former Prime Minister John Major condemned the series for basing an episode around the ‘damaging and malicious lie’ that Charles urged him to oust the Queen.

Friends called the portrayal of the new monarch as a disloyal schemer ‘false, unfair and deeply wounding’ and urged viewers to boycott the hit Netflix show. The new series, due to be screened next month, shows Charles lobbying Prime Minister John Major in a bizarre attempt to force his mother’s abdication.

But Sir John told The Mail on Sunday the meeting never happened and called the scene a ‘barrel load of malicious nonsense’.

A well-placed source said: ‘‘All the one-to-one conversations you see on screen are utter fiction and some scenes have been entirely created for dramatic and commercial purposes with little regard for the truth. People should be boycotting it.’

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