In the last years of Princess Diana’s life, she was deeply in love with Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani surgeon who worked in London. Diana was very interested in Pakistani culture and she dreamed of marrying Khan and splitting her time between London and Pakistan. She befriended Jemima Khan, a British heiress who was (at the time) married to Imran Khan (they later divorced and she went back to her maiden name, Jemima Goldsmith). Jemima and Diana visited Pakistan together several times and they were very good friends. After Diana passed away, Jemima kept her friend’s secrets. But Jemima decided to reveal some of those secrets to Peter Morgan and Netflix’s The Crown. Jemima began dating Peter Morgan when he was on a break from his relationship with Gillian Anderson. According to Jemima, she joined The Crown’s writing staff to give further insight into Diana’s life in the 1990s. Then… Jemima and Peter broke up, he went back to Gillian Anderson and apparently Jemima no longer wants anything to do with The Crown.
A real-life rift at the heart of The Crown is making its own news this weekend. The U.K. Sunday Times reports that Jemima Khan, a close friend of Diana’s who also dated series creator Peter Morgan for a few months until February this year, has withdrawn her co-operation from the show because she believed it was not telling the story “respectfully.”
Morgan and Khan, The Times says, were friends for years but only started dating “late last year” after Morgan broke up with Gillian Anderson (who famously played Margaret Thatcher in series four). By then, Khan says, she had come on board as a writer, telling The Times that in 2019, “Peter Morgan asked me to co-write on the fifth series of The Crown, particularly those episodes which concerned Princess Diana’s last years before she died.” Khan adds that she has never publicly spoken before about her friendship with Diana.
In her statement to The Times, Khan goes on to add that she worked on “outline and scripts” from September 2020 until February 2021. The Times notes that Khan and Morgan “broke up in February” when he got back together with Anderson.
Whatever the context of the breakdown in the writing relationship may be, Khan says that she pulled out of the project, asked for her contributions to be cut and “declined a credit.”
A spokesperson for The Crown provided a counterpoint, noting tartly that while Khan was a source for the show’s writers, “She has never been contracted as a writer on the series.”
Well, I have some questions!! First of all, do you think Peter Morgan hooked up with Jemima with an ulterior motive of getting dirt from Diana’s friend? Was this writers-room espionage?!? And how much did Gillian Anderson know? Did she think her partner (Morgan) was just briefly getting too close to a source he was using for work? Did Jemima think it was love? Did Peter Morgan? What a mess! And yes, the statement from the Crown’s spokesperson was very TART. Turns out, Jemima never really joined the writing staff after all! As for any disrespect towards Diana… who knows. I would think that Jemima simply felt used by Morgan.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
And now the British media are trying to use this situation as another stick to beat Harry with to get him to back out of the Netflix deal. Maybe Jemima got played by Morgan, but that ain’t Harry’s fault or his business.
Also, it’s too late to ask for her contributions to be cut. It’s not like she owns a copyright on true events. At most she can ask to keep herself out of the story. But the Diana info she shared seems like fair game to me. She probably gave a lot of juicy info.
Anyone else wonder if Harry has been a source of info for the show as well?
Smh. No Harry hasn’t been a source material. This is how the abuse of Harry and Meghan is perpetuated, by these unfounded speculations.
Sounds like Jemima probably spilled her guts during pillow talk and is now trying to publicly backtrack now she’s been dumped. She’s just another in a long line of friends who have betrayed Diana’s memory.
Careful, you’ll turn into a source for the tabloids – “Harry was a source for the Crown…” in large font on front page, “…says anonymous poster on leading American royal analysis site” in miniscule font on back page
This is messy on so many levels.
When she was still his girlfriend she had no problem spilling her guts, but the minute she gets dump, it’s a problem.
If they broke up since February, what is she ratcheting on about.
Man whores have been around for a long time, side eyeing Jillian for taking him back.
Meh she has a history of messy, that court case she had with Russell Brand against a masseuse was a lot, she was also in a relationship with Hugh Grant, so her picker is questionable at best.
@Zapp Brannigan Isn’t she the one that Jeremy Clarkson had an affair with as well? This was right at the beginning of all the super-injunctions… I think ‘questionable picker’ is putting it very nicely.
@ Seraphina, I know! I don’t know where to start and how to begin trying to decipher all of this! Did Morgan use her and/or portray his feelings as deep and a future? I think it’s sad that Jemima divulged so much personal information between the two of them, especially with regards to Diana’s personal feelings and how she felt about Khan, whom I think she would have traveled to the ends of the earth for.
I think the only victim out of all of this is Diana.
I hear people talk (outside of CB) and I just shake my head – as far as BaRF. So much crazy and insane going on. So much dysfunction and on so many levels.
oooh this is some behind the scenes intrigue. Was Peter Morgan sleeping with Jemima for insider info? And what does she mean, the story wasn’t being dealt with “respectfully?” The series has been pretty good to Diana so far, so I wonder if things go off the rails for the 90s?
There are some problems in it. The scene with Anne’s discussion with Betty about the Wales marriage saying that “Charles has only ever been with one woman” (lie, lol) and saying Diana had a revolving door of lovers “in and out, in and out”, was something that stood out to me.
Charles should be happy this series is painting his current marriage as his true love. The truth was far worse.
Oh yeah, I didn’t like that scene, but I also interpreted it less as the truth and more as Anne throwing Diana under the bus while protecting Charles. Like I thought that scene was about making Anne look petty, you know?
Regardless no series is going to be 100% pro diana or pro Charles (you can’t really, life doesn’t work that way) but overall I think the “loser” in the 4th season was Charles, because it made it obvious that C&C never stopped sleeping together, which is something we know Charles has denied. Plus it just reminded people in general of how horrible the royals were to Diana.
so now I am wondering if the series does an about-face with Diana in Season 5, or if Jemima is just ticked that Peter went back to Gillian.
This intrigues me and now I’m dying to know, what was the truth that was far worse?
Becks: Yeah, I was of two minds how to take that scene, whether it was supposed to be Anne doing that or no, but they didn’t show Charles having affairs with other women, and Anne seems to have been assigned this “Cassandra/soothsayer” role in the show in terms of reporting on Charles, so I decided Occam’s Razor, lol.
I don’t expect the show to be 100 percent pro or anti anyone but it’s obvious Morgan doesn’t want to go too far. Charles and Camilla still sleeping together is the least of what happened then, since it’s been normalized knowledge now lol.
Giddy: Charles and Camilla agreed together that Diana would be proper and malleable so that is why Camilla never intended breaking up with Charles. And not only that, Charles rotated a series of mistresses, including Kanga Tryon, Janet Jenkins, and Eva O’Neill (the speculated list is far larger), and encouraged “factionalism” like one or any of them enlisting the help of others for his attention. A very 17th century domestic arrangement…
Wasn’t there a scene where Betty and Phillip (and I think the Queen Mother?) were talking about potential wives? They threw out names but someone said that they all turned him down. That’s where Camilla Shand was brought up and they didn’t like her at all.
Regarding that scene with Anne and Betty, I think Anne embellished to protect her brother.
Yeah, and that was rich of Anne, she was no shining example of romantic virtue herself. She was definitely protecting Charles.
My guess: Morgan must have promised her some credit and worked while they were together, she might have given him her opinions on what was written, maybe even started working on sine changes and he was game…until he second guessed himself and went crawling to Gillian.
Then it made any possibility if working tiger awkward and she decided to go #TeamRoyal on the whole The Crown x Netflix Crown thing
I do not think Morgan will be disrespectful to Diana…I think he might get too close to what happened to make everyone nervous.
Gillian and Morgan were sitting far apart at the Emmy Awards, I don’t believe the rumour that she took him back after their breakup.
I wouldn’t have taken him back. Men like this…
Where they even that close? There was a point in time they had something in common of being high profile British women dating Pakistani men,but i dont think they were Oprah and Gayle.
I was only aware of Diana going to Pakistan once as the Doctor’s girlfriend and his mother was not happy about it because she wanted her son to marry a nice Pakistani girl, not Diana.
They were never besties as Jemima was a lot younger but they were close for a while.
Diana went to Pakistan on quite a few occasions and stayed with the Khans, they did some chariry work etc.
Incidentally I always thought they physically looked quite similar- also in their demeanour. Jemima had the same tilted head thing which Diana did a lot too.
I came here to say exactly that! They look enough alike to be sisters..
There actually have been some forced rumors about this, trying to put Jimmy Goldsmith in bed with Frances Shand-Kydd.
Honestly, Diana looked so much like her family that I do not believe it at all.
@Ennie, Agree.
I think those rumors started in an Australian tabloid..New Idea, I believe
Diana has a lot of similarities to her Dad, John Spencer.imo
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a22800162/princess-diana-brother-father-rare-photo/
I could be wrong but I think Diana was closer to Jemima’s mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith the daughter of the Marquess of Londonderry and ex-wife of Mark Birley, than she was to Jemima.
Funny you mention the physical similarities because it was a rumour/wild gossip that Diana’s mother was sleeping with Jemima’s father and he was the actual father of Diana, not John Spencer.
it’s funny how it had to be Diana, when the other Spencer Sisters, and even the brother have the bone structure closer to Goldsmith than Diana, Actually, the older Earl of Spencer and Jimmy looked like brothers very close to it, specially in their youth.
I do not believe it, but boy that layer of society has had loose morals for a lot of generations. Inbred not only in formal ways, but also on the side.
Funny that they are crying so much now.
@Ennie: oh I don’t believe it either, I was just mentioning it because I remembered it when the poster mentioned Jemima and Diana look a bit alike.
I understand Sofia, I see it as what happens to Harry now.
Google the photos of Zac Goldsmith and Diana. The similarity is striking.
I totally believe this. I don’t think Diana looked like her family at all. She looked just like Goldsmith.
Lady Annabel looks quite a bit like Ma Middleton. Maybe it’s me but when images popped up of her – I was kinda blown away with it.
Simply rumour. Diana is a perfect combination of her father and mother.
This is some great gossip. I guess these society Brits consider cheating their right?
Thank you all – this was delicious gossip that sent me on rabbit holes in the afternoon.
Haha! Same, I am deep in the rabbit holes.
I saw Jemima Khan backstage at a concert one time and she was -M-A-J-O-R-
I bet she was.
Also, I’m side eying Jemima for her disloyalty to her dead friend. Gross.
What do you mean by major?
@Summergirl I wasn’t familiar with this either and had to Google. Urban Dictionary’s top entry (from 2008–I’m way behind):
“An adjective used to describe something to the highest level of fierce, awesome, beast, etc. Mainly used by Posh, the hot and sexy Victoria Beckham.
—”There was this woman in a powder blue trouser suit, SHE was MAJOR.”
—”Does this look Major?”
—”You’re Major.”
—”I’m going to pick out a house, it’s going to be totally Major.”
by DVBcelebritard March 20, 2008”
I wondered if it meant really stoned or such, so glad I looked it up.
And @Matthew, you’re Major for introducing us to a new (well, new to us) slang. I’ll definitely drop the word into a conversation with my college-aged kids and see what happens (the same kids who gave their college English professor aunt a much-needed pack of slang flash-cards so she’d better follow her students’ conversations).
Thank you for the definition, @Mumzy! I wondered if @Matthew meant she was behaving like a diva or something.
I remember when the gossip broke about Morgan leaving Gillian Anderson for Jemima. Gillian’s reaction was like, “eh”. Then all of a sudden they were back together and Jemima was out. It never seemed that Gillian was all that concerned about it which to me says that either she knew he was using Jemima or that she knew it just wasn’t very serious.
I don’t believe that Gillian took him back, they didn’t even sit near each other at the Emmy Awards, they sat on opposite sides of the room in fact.
I wonder why the tabloids keep linking them together when they haven’t been seen with each other since their breakup in December.
I just hope she spilled ALL the tea she had on Charles and the RF. Can’t wait to see season 5!
Diana was very close to Jemima’s mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith. Imran and Hasnat are from the same extended family, so I find it interesting that Jemima was accepted but Diana wasn’t. Jemima did convert to Islam (for a time), went to live in the extended family household and adopted Pakistani dress and customs, but even that wouldn’t usually be enough to overcome her foreignness and her heritage. Diana went to Pakistan on numerous occasions, sometimes in a more public capacity than other times. There are many photos of her with Jemima and Imran with different hairstyles and outfits.
As for Jemima turning on The Crown — that’s just her ego feeling bruised.
I think Diana was not just “other” to them but also so hugely famous that she couldn’t do what Jemima did. And maybe Jemima’s mother-in-law was a little more flexible than Hasnat Khan’s mother.
not a surprise that Diana wasnt accepted to be honest, she was a divorcee with 2 children at that time.
It is sad, as Diana’s was an arranged marriage that went wrong. In that part of the world , where arranged marriages are the norm, they would be more understanding, but I blame his mother. It seemed apparent to me that she was the head of the family and really never accepted Diana, and probably blamed her for the demise of her marriage. Sad that the doctor wanted to compy with his expected role in that society, even as he lived in the other side of the world. I expect he married a young woman with no past , just as Diana was.
it is exactly in societies where arranged marriages are the norm, that a messy divorce will receive the least understanding. How else would you maintain the “norm” is you accept those that break the rule so publicly?
She would be a contributor today if she and Morgan were still together. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
I agree with you. If you cared about your friend as you say, then your lips about her life would have remained sealed. Don’t grow integrity and a moral compass after he dumps you. Even though it sounds like he was probably using her , that doesn’t mean she has to spill her guts.
Or how about this—don’t be yet another person who sells out Diana’s confidences for some temporary dick or a writer’s credit. No sympathy for Jemima whatsoever. Peter Morgan may be, and all indications suggest that he is some kind of, trash, but Jemima has some kind of gall selling herself as a victim rather than just another person who in the end was no kind of friend.
+1
I bet she felt she was making Diana justice. I haven’t finished the last season, but maybe Diana’s portrayal would be more sympathetic.
I’m sure that’s exactly how she justified it to herself, @Ennie. But if that were in any way what actually motivated her, then her break-up with Morgan and the matter of a writer’s credit wouldn’t really be at issue, would it.
She might still feel used. It was still her decision to make, but we really don’t know how things happened. I still feel used but a boyfriend I had that talked me into the relationship, but there were some issues at hand. It was my decision totally, but now I feel he was manipulating me to get me to do what he wants. lessons, lessons.
Both things can be true. He may very well have been using her. And it would not have been possible for him to use her if she were not willing to sell out her friend for dick and a writer’s credit. So oh well for Jemima. Way to try to play it out for even more sympathy, though, Ms. Khan. Truly, truly well done in the long tradition of every other “friend” who has ever made a buck off of Diana’s memory.
Idk. She seems privileged.
Editing because I just realized she was also the co-executive producer “Making A Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA “ – among others.
I honestly thought the same. He got close to her because of Diana, got what he wanted/went back to Gillian and then dumped her. She feels upset and angry so here we are.
I don’t have much sympathy for either party. Morgan is a pos for using Jemima like this (if he did) and Jemima shouldn’t have talked about Diana in such a way to a man who’s making a season on a show about her. Again, Morgan is a pos for using her in the first place but Jemima knew what she was getting into.
Go ahead and throw the tomatoes at me.
LOL I’m not going to throw anything at you. It does seem like he used her but also, it wasn’t like they got together before the Crown started, she knew what his current major project was/is, it wasn’t a secret that the Diana years were coming up.
The other story here is that Peter Morgan effs for scripts. I thought male showrunners got ahead with their intelligence not their bodies! Now I wonder who he slept with to write about Prime Minister Thatcher.
Celebitches, tell your sons that they don’t need to sleep their way or use their bodies to get scripts.
She traded her friend’s secrets for some man attetion? That’s so shady and wrong, seriously.
The Crown has had its ups and downs. I enjoyed the first two seasons, and loved when they brought Diana in, but in that season the story still felt a bit thin. Claire Foy made the character feel so real, but I didn’t find that with Emma Corrin (even though her acting was very good). Peter Morgan sounds like a nightmare, those artist types…
Also, I always believed the rumors about Diana and Jemima being sisters. They look so much alike.
I liked the first two seasons but overall it’s become rather boring. Despite the press going on about the Diana angle and using it to attack Harry’s Netflix deal,I think this show actually props up the monarchy and portrays them way more sympathetically than they deserve. It’s a British production with a mostly British cast and crew and it’s hard to shake that tree and undo the conditioning and deference. I think Corrin’s portrayal of young Diana was very good and sympathetic, but at the same time, the writing didn’t make the character very likable IMO. I hope this is the last season or it ends with the immediate aftermath of Diana and the Blair years, because the real life stories are out there and way more crazy than this stuff.
I don’t really agree. The first couple of seasons bored me the most, even though the performances were good. The unraveling of the beginning narrative to show them for what they are is fascinating to me.
ITA, kind of along the lines of all press is good press. The show has actually promoted the royals to a new audience. I also think the Queen is way more boring in real life than how she is portrayed by Claire Foy as this nuanced, intelligent and complicated woman.
Well, that’s kind of the genius of it. We get the young glamorous Queen….only to find out later she’s not really that intelligent, or curious, or focused on anything except horses and dogs, and she was pretty much always that way, but the allure blinded people.
The show has definitely promoted the royals to a new audience but a lot of Gen Z’ers are not pleased, lol. Their reactions on the internet to the last season gave me life.
Agreed. I think even if you hate them you’re still going to watch and that’s helps them. Bad press is good press because at least they’re talking about you. They won’t go away until no one pays attention to them.
And no I’ve never been on the petty Betty being nothing more than loyal to the state or being a sweet old grandmother. She’s cold as ice. Seems like an awful person and yet like a nothing personality. Her and Waity have a lot in common.
Cannot be sisters. Diana is a Spencer and passed the red head Spencer gene to Harry.
That makes no sense when Harry resembles his Spencer aunts so much. I think it was more a case of the younger woman copying the style of Diana. I don’t see a physical resemblance at all. I will say in general that so many of a Diana’s friends and former employees think they exclusively have the right to her legacy or story, more so than her own sons, and they are just a small component to the overall picture.
L4FRIMARIE I don’t see it either. To me they look nothing alike. Jemima has a triangle chin and Diana has a more square jaw. Plus Jemima has fatter cheeks and thicker lips. Her eyes are also wider. Diana also has the same nose as William; thin, bump, slightly long bridge. Jemima doesnt.
I remember when Celebitchy wrote a previous article about him ditching her to go back to Gillian Anderson and how humiliated she was by it. Apparently she’s still upset and probably does feel used. She used to be a big 90s it girl who was lauded for her looks and her wealth by the likes of Tatler, so this must be just plain embarrassing. Whatever happened, it seems the production and herself don’t agree on what exactly her contribution is . She has tweeted some really nasty stuff about Meghan so no sympathy there.
Really? I had read two or three supportive tweets, about being an “other”, and other on similarities on how she felt after marrying a man famous in his own country.
I wasn’t a fan of either the real Diana or Thatcher, so I skipped season 4 of The Crown. I doubt I’ll go back.
Diana looked like her ancestress, Lady Cynthia Spencer.
Gillian is not back with Morgan, he’s her ex boyfriend. They didn’t even sit together at the Emmy Awards and when she thanked him during her speech, it looked like she gave him a side-eye and then turned away from him, he also looked upset or pissed during her speech. Allegedly they broke up in December and then he was living with Jemima in January according to the reports.
Watch the Emmy Speech and you’ll see Gillian and Morgan are not a couple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3epLj6ZStsw&ab_channel=TelevisionAcademy