Everything’s happening this week in royal gossip. We’ve gotten our first look at Omid Scobie’s Endgame, we got palace briefings on Prince Harry calling his father for his birthday, and we’ve got Kate making an ass out of herself yet again. Now add this to the pile: The Crown’s Season 6 has been released (the first part at least), and the palace is finally doing some complaining, explaining, bitching and moaning. I’ve been waiting for this for weeks – the palace is behind schedule, usually King Charles’s “allies” have already spent a full month complaining about The Crown before a new season airs. Please allow The Telegraph’s Vicky Ward to get the ball rolling:
The final series of The Crown depicts Prince Charles waging “war” on Diana, Princess of Wales, in the weeks before her death because she was getting more press coverage than Camilla Parker Bowles. The then heir to the throne is shown hosting a 50th birthday party for his future wife at Highgrove but loses his temper when Diana dominates the next day’s front pages.
However, Ingrid Seward, the royal biographer, said there was not a “grain of truth” in the suggestion that Charles lost his temper over such a matter.
“That’s just not him,” she said. “He might have been worried that Diana was intent on trying to eclipse Camilla but would have approached it in a different way. I think he would have felt sad that she felt the need to do that.”
The first episode of the sixth and final series, released on Thursday, shows Charles pleading with his mother, Elizabeth II, to attend the birthday party, saying “a public gesture of approval from the Queen would transform the campaign for Camilla’s legitimacy… Your attendance not only as my mother but symbolically as queen would be transformative for Camilla. She’ll never be fully embraced by the public until she has your approval.”
However, the Queen is cold towards her son and tells him she cannot go because she has to visit a Rolls-Royce factory in Derbyshire. “How can I possibly give my approval when I don’t approve,” she asks. “It’s nothing personal, I’m sure she’s very nice. It’s a matter of principle. Two perfectly good marriages, two perfectly happy families, have been broken up by this.”
Meanwhile, Diana tells Prince William they are going on holiday with Mohamed Al-Fayed because she wants to be out of the country for “you-know-who’s” birthday celebration. The following day, Charles is miserable because his ex-wife dominates the newspaper front pages.
“What’s the use of a few warm headlines when Camilla can be eclipsed by Diana at the drop of a hat?” he rages at his PR guru, Mark Bolland, whose job was to make the future Queen more presentable. “I don’t want partial, qualified victory. This is war. Only total victory will do.”
Charles threw a glitzy birthday party for Camilla at Highgrove in the summer of 1997 and he was mad that A) Diana’s vacation got more attention and B) his mummy wouldn’t come to the party and show her approval of his mistress? It actually sounds like The Crown got that right. While the institution cut Diana loose in 1996, they didn’t know how to “manage” her or control her post-divorce. It was a huge problem for Charles in particular because he was hellbent on legitimizing Camilla in any way. Think of how the institution is still reacting to Harry and Meghan, now think about what it was like for Diana, still living in an apartment in Kensington Palace, still being spied on by the Windsors, the government and the press, and still able to get global headlines whenever she wanted. Ingrid Seward is full of sh-t.
Photos courtesy of Netflix/The Crown.
Elizabeth Debicki is so gorgeous. Great casting; the rest of them, not so much.
I was going to say the same, Debicki casting is spot-on but it’s as if they had given everything on this bit of casting and couldn’t do it for the others.
I’ll piggyback your comment. The Crown has really given up on casting. I find that with English shows. They will have one great casting choice and surrounded them with people who THEY want to be stars.
The William and Harry aren’t catching the moment at all. The William role could be award worthy in the right hands. Instead they come off as people who never seen them in live action.
I also like the actors who play Dodi and Mohamed Al-Fayed. I think they’re both really charming and layered. Of course, I’m not that familiar with their original counterparts, so maybe they are not at all alike, but I find them both compelling to watch.
Well if he wasn’t jealous they wouldn’t show it but he is so very jealous. His picture should appear in the dictionary next to the jealous description that’s how jealous he is. He is jealous of anyone and anything that takes the focus off of him. The truth and Chuckles are not friends.
He is *still* jealous of Diana and she has been dead for 25+ years. I love that she still has the power to make him look petty, selfish, and small.
The man formerly known as Prince Charles has been having petulant hissy fits over coverage for decades. It’s well known. How often do they write about how royal visits are scheduled so that KC gets to shine or conversely that PW or PH has stolen his coverage. Instead of denying it he might as well lean into it. Right now everyone knows about his toddler behavior and a few people writing otherwise isn’t going to change that fact.
This whole “stolen coverage” obsession of theirs is so ludicrous.
No one owes you their attention, just because you are the heir, and not even now, just because you are king.
If you want press coverage, do something actually interesting. Be someone your people actually give a shit about.
The people cared about Diana because of her compassion, because of her style, because she was a genuinely interesting person.
Charles has never given them anything to care about, because he and the other heirs have been raised/are being raised to believe they are God’s gift to the UK, and therefore entitled to whatever they want, including attention.
They still don’t understand that no one else sees them that way, and that they have to work to earn our attention, our care and our respect.
Preach Dk! Preach!
Your assessment is spot on, but the RF has their heads so far up their own asses that they will never see what is plainly obvious to the rest of us.
“If you want press coverage, do something actually interesting. Be someone your people actually give a shit about.”
I’d love to frame that and send it to all the haters. Bravo!
For Charles, the real shame is that yes, he’s done good things. Organic farming, environmentalism, Prince’s Trust support. But he decided to sh*tcan what could have been his own good reputation because jealousy was supposedly worth it.
CC don’t want public being able to link their callous erasure of Diana with how they have been trying to erasure MH. The security question is very painful because of MH genuine fears over car crashes etc., Harry stated in Spare just how courageous Diana was to go it alone outside the , cough, “protection” of the RF. People have short memories, they forget The War of the Wales and the way Diana was being rubbished in the press.
You will never convince me the timing of Princess Diana’s death was so randomly convenient for Chuck.
Headline should read “Charles, still jealous of Diane, is upset a TV show noticed what EVERYONEelse already knows”.
None of this is a secret, you giant eared, fat fingered, nepo baby.
Ingrid Seward is attempting rewrite History but we all know that Charles was upset that Diana was still overshadowing him and Camilla after the divorce.
Nope, sorry, no, they can’t do this to me again. They already ran this play, baiting the public into believing the season would be truthful and revealing only for it to be largely whitewashed in favor of a palace narrative. I can safely say that after seeing how they’ve handled Diana’s story thus far, I’m sure that whatever they’ve managed to put together this season will be sure to outrage royal supporters and detractors alike, so thanks but I’m just going to skip this one.
If diana would’ve gave Camilla her blessing and no one criticized Camilla would Charles eventually divorced her? Once he saw that Camilla was unfit for royal duties would he have noped out?
Camilla had to wait in the car in Kenya Nov 2023. He didnt even try to give her a chance. She was angry in that car. Lol. Best picture she ever took. I know others think she bowed out but I don’t think so.
She is rude and isn’t invited anywhere. Chuck reign is all on him cause Camilla, William AND Kate can’t help. He actually needed to make diana an ambassador. Yeah she would’ve made quips about Camilla but she would’ve been a great traveler.
“He actually needed to make diana an ambassador.” – I hope that keeps him up at night!
Diana’s been dead over 25 years and she’s still getting more attention than Camilla. And maybe people out there can remember – I don’t think Elizabeth attended C&C’s wedding, but only a reception afterwards?
So IIRC there were two ceremonies and she only attended one. I think she did not attend the civil ceremony but was at the blessing in the church, or vice versa.
That’s right, thanks. I think she attended the blessing. It was a Church of England thing, even though they loosened up the rules against divorced people with living exes marrying again in the church.
I’m glad people are being reminded again of just how petty and small Charles is. Still won’t watch this season though. I loved the first 4 seasons and I’ve watched them several times. I watched season 5 once and have zero interest in season 6. Elizabeth Debiki is perfect but the rest of the casting is awful. And I like those actors in other roles! Such a drop off from such a promising beginning. Too bad.
I doubt I’ll watch. Work is pretty crazy at the moment, and all I want to do afterward is drink a glass of wine and decompress. But I’m still sore about the casting. Elizabeth Debicki is perfect, but honestly, Imelda Staunton as QEII is so low-key that she’s almost not there. Too bad, because I adore Imelda. I also love Jonathan Pryce, but he was woefully miscast as Philip. Don’t get me started on Dominic West as Chucky Boy …
Dominic West as Charles is growing on me. The physical resemblance isn’t really there, but he sure nailed the posture, and some of the mannerisms. And the petulant, woe-is-me undercurrent that emanates whenever things don’t go his way seems dead on.
Charlie was jealous of Diana from the day of the wedding until the day she died, and if truth be told, he is STILL jealous of her because she is still the countries “queen of hearts” and that is why Kate trys to emulate her and fails miserably. I won’t be watching the series, but, after reading some of the blurb today, I want to thank it for starting my day with a full on belly laugh. Diana’s ghost telling Charles he looked so “, broken and handsome” at the hospital 😂😂😂😂👻👻👻👻 if I were Diana’s ghost, I would have been asking, “right you bastard, who did you pay, and don’t think you have got rid of me, because I will haunt you and your tart until the day you die. My revenge on both of you will be my son. Harry is My revenge
“It was a huge problem for Charles in particular because he was hellbent on legitimizing Camilla in any way.”
And this is why people don’t think her death was an accident and why Harry pays top dollar for his own security.
“However, the Queen is cold towards her son and tells him she cannot go because she has to visit a Rolls-Royce factory in Derbyshire.”
Aw, _damn_… Burn of life!!! 🙂 🙂 😉
I just finished watching the episodes, and I’m mad! They portray Diana like in season 5, they even make her say she’s lost. This whole seanson is going to be like the last, small bits of bad Charles and Cowzilla, but on the whole, still showing bad Diana. They are rewriting history, showing her worse and him better than they were. I know she wasn’t a saint, but I remember the stories, I still have magazines with them. He and Cowz were worse than they are shown! So disappointed in the Crown!