The Prince of Wales is not threatened by renewed interest in Princess Diana but is frustrated that the past keeps being brought up when he is trying to move forward, according to a royal expert.
British author Katie Nicholl said the Princess of Wales appears to constantly be back in the spotlight thanks to The Crown’s news series, which focuses on her marriage to Prince Charles, and because of the 25th anniversary of her Panorama interview.
But despite the 73-year-old heir to the throne apparently feeling overshadowed by his popular wife during their life together, the current fascination with Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, hasn’t left him feeling threatened.
Ms Nicholl told 9Honey: ‘I’m absolutely sure he doesn’t see that sudden revived interest in her as a threat at all. I think more a frustration that the past keeps getting dredged up when he is trying to move forward.’
She added that she mostly felt sorry for the royal’s second wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, 73, after she faced a tirade of online hate after The Crown falsely suggested she had an affair with Charles throughout his marriage to Diana.
The Prince of Wales (pictured) is not threatened by renewed interest in Princess Diana but is frustrated that the past keeps being brought up when he is trying to move forward, according to a royal expert
The royal biographer suggested the series has ‘rekindled some of the ill feeling of the past’.
‘I think it’s not just Charles’s image that’s gone through a sort of 360 [since the 1980s], it’s Camilla’s too,’ she said.
‘Her reinvention has been a remarkable one and one that’s taken a lot of work on her part, on the part of her courtiers and I actually feel quite sorry for the Duchess of Cornwall.’
British author Katie Nicholl said the Princess of Wales (pictured in 1988) appears to constantly be back in the spotlight thanks to The Crown’s news series, which focuses on her marriage to Prince Charles, and because of the 25th anniversary of her Panorama interview
The royal biographer suggested the series has ‘rekindled some of the ill feeling of the past’. Pictured: Emma Corrin as Princess Diana and Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles in the show
Since the latest series of the Netflix show, angry viewers posted misplaced hate tweets to the Duchess on the Royal Family’s social media – with comments on some posts turned off as a result.
Online comments by viewers of the programme reveal that many accepted the fake storylines as historical fact – including the incorrect assertion that Charles and Camilla conducted an affair throughout the Prince’s entire relationship with Diana.
But the couple insist their romantic relationship only resumed in 1986 – by which time the marriage had, as the Prince himself famously put it in a TV documentary, ‘irretrievably broken down’.
Royal experts said the portrayal of Charles and Camilla was yet another example of the Netflix series failing to portray the Royal Family truthfully.
Ms Nicholl added that she mostly felt sorry for the Prince of Wales’ second wife, the Duchess of Cornwall (pictured together in July), 73, after she faced a tirade of online hate after The Crown falsely suggested she had an affair with Charles throughout his marriage to Diana
Since the latest series of the Netflix show, angry viewers posted misplaced hate tweets to the Duchess on the Royal Family’s social media – with comments on some posts turned off as a result. Pictured: Emerald Fennell as Camilla in the show
Author Sally Bedell Smith, who has written biographies of the Queen, Charles and Diana, said: ‘I am very sad to say that I have heard it over, over and over again that people take The Crown at face value and they believe everything they see in the series, and that includes Charles and Camilla.
‘The notion in the programme that he entered into his marriage cynically with a view to continuing with Camilla and putting his new wife on the side is exceedingly dishonest and damaging. It is just simply not true.’
Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said: ‘The Crown is a very one-sided portrayal, which is really the Diana version. The sad thing for people viewing it is that they are going to take it as the correct story line, which it isn’t at all.’
Meanwhile, Ms Nicholl claimed there is also frustration among royal aides that the new series of The Crown was released as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were in Germany on an official visit, which was overshadowed by the drama.
