Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has received an influx of online abuse following the release of season four of The Crown on Netflix.
The latest season of the hit royal drama is set during Margaret Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister, and follows the courtship of Prince Charles (played by Josh O’Connor) and Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin).
In the series, it is suggested that Charles carried out an extramarital affair with Camilla, played by Emerald Fennell, while married to Diana.
However, in real life, the pair were reported to have had little contact with one another throughout the first five years of Charles and Diana’s marriage.
On Instagram, Camilla’s official page posted a photo last Friday (20 November), which received thousands of comments from irate Crown fans.
Read more: How accurate is The Crown season four?
The Crown has been criticised for its tendency to deviate from historical fact. The series has been proven to conflate and re-arrange the timeline of key historical events, as well as including wholly fabricated conversations and plotlines.
The series’ creator Peter Morgan has spoken out recently in defence of the decision to take liberties with the truth.
Particular scrutiny was piled on a fictitious exchange between Charles and Lord Mountbatten (Charles Dance), in which the latter condemns the former for pursuing Camilla romantically.
Morgan said: “In my own head I thought that would have even greater impact on Charles if it were to come post-mortem, as it were.
“I think everything that’s in that letter that Mountbatten writes to Charles is what I really believe, based on everything I’ve read and people I’ve spoken to, that represents his view.
“We will never know if it was put into a letter, and we will never know if Charles got that letter before or after Mountbatten’s death, but in this particular drama, this is how I decided to deal with it.”
