Prince Harry has said in the past that he watches The Crown, but season six—the Netflix show’s final season—will be nearly impossible for him to tune into. There are no spoilers here when we say that part one of the season, which debuted on Thursday, covers the summer leading up to his mother Princess Diana’s death on August 31, 1997, in a Parisian car crash, and Page Six reports that Harry (understandably) refuses to watch any scenes that have to do with his mother’s death.
The first episode opens in the summer of 1997, where Diana, along with Harry and older brother Prince William, join the Fayeds aboard their luxury yacht. William and Harry eventually go to Balmoral with their father, Prince Charles, while Diana and Dodi Fayed pursue a romance as the summer continues. The day before Diana is due to see the boys after their summer holiday, Diana and Dodi are in Paris, where paparazzi chase their Mercedes into the Alma Tunnel—leading, ultimately, to the crash. (True to the show’s promise, The Crown doesn’t show the crash’s moment of impact.)
The character of Harry played very briefly in the series’ fifth season but has a much more substantial role in season six. Harry is played onscreen by actor Fflyn Edwards, and scenes with Harry in them include the devastating recreation of 12-year-old Harry being woken up in bed by his father and brother and being told the news that his mother has died; the show also depicts the final phone call between Diana and Harry. “Due to the sensitive nature of content in upcoming episodes of The Crown, Prince Harry has understandably decided not to view this season,” a source told Page Six.
Harry has talked openly and candidly about the grief he suffered following the death of his mother, and how his mental health was affected.
It adds a layer of complexity that Harry and wife Meghan Markle have had a multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix—the streaming service where The Crown is distributed—since 2020. That said, “There are no ill feelings towards the show’s creators or Netflix,” the source said, and the Sussexes were “not consulted by anyone affiliated with the series or Netflix,” nor were they sent storylines or advance episodes for approval or discussion, Page Six reports.
William also has made it clear that he will not watch The Crown.
While rooted in fact, the show does take some creative license, particularly in regard to a scene with Diana and Dodi the night they died. (Minor spoiler alert to come.) Dodi proposing to Diana isn’t true, royal expert Sally Bedell Smith wrote in The Daily Telegraph: “There is no indication whatever that Dodi actually proposed, although he may have intended to with the ring he purchased,” she wrote. “All the signals Diana sent in the days before Dodi and Diana died showed that she had no interest in marrying Dodi. In separate conversations the day before her death with her friend Lady Annabel Goldsmith and her daughter Jemima Khan, Diana used identical language when they asked how serious she was about Dodi: ‘I need another marriage like a bad rash on my face.’”
Bedell Smith said it wasn’t true that Charles had to beg his parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, for a state funeral for Diana—it was the Queen who recognized the need for a public tribute, she said. It was also the Queen who sent a Royal Air Force jet to fly to Paris to bring Diana’s body home, with Charles and Diana’s sisters on board; Charles didn’t have to beg his mother for the plane.
Part two of season six drops December 14.
