Princess Diana’s Confidante Slams ‘The Crown’ as ‘Disgusting and Sick’ — Questions if Showrunners Want to Hurt William and Harry
Princess Diana’s divorce and the final days of her life will be a major storyline in The Crown Season 5. The Netflix series is heading into one of the royal family’s darkest decades in recent history. And the show is already facing criticism and backlash before the new episodes have dropped. Diana’s confidante has slammed The Crown — calling it “disgusting and sick” — and wonders if they are trying to hurt her children, William and Harry.
Princess Diana’s final hours will be dramatized in ‘The Crown’ Season 5
The new season of The Crown will depict the 1990s, a tumultuous decade for the royal family. These are the years when the marriage of then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana fell apart publicly, and the couple went through a nasty divorce. In 1997, just one year after the divorce was finalized, Diana tragically died in a car crash in a Paris tunnel.
The Crown is not shying away from these difficult topics, as they will dramatize the final hours of Diana’s life. However, Netflix has stated they will not show the actual crash. Still, there are many who believe that dramatizing these painful moments for entertainment purposes is going too far.
One critic is Diana’s trusted confidant Simone Simmons, a woman she met at an alternative medicine center known as The Hale Clinic. Simmons is a psychic and alternative healer who Diana regularly consulted with in the years leading up to her untimely death.
Princess Diana’s confidante slams ‘The Crown’, calls it ‘disgusting and sick’
Simmons told The Sun that she found The Crown to be “disgusting and sick,” and wondered if they were “setting out” to hurt Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
“These are cruel, sadistic and wicked people to recreate these moments. They are the lowest of the low.”They are rewriting history as they go along and that’s what makes me very angry,” Simmons said. “It’s forcing [William and Harry] to relive the pain, agony, and psychological torment they suffered when their mother died.”
Simmons is just the latest critic of The Crown’s decision to depict the final days of Diana’s life in season 5. Dame Judi Dench wrote a letter to The Times, calling the new season “crude sensationalism” and “cruelly unjust” to the royal family.
“No one is a greater believer in artistic freedom than I, but this cannot go unchallenged. The program makers have resisted all calls for them to carry a disclaimer at the start of each episode,” the Oscar winner wrote.
“The time has come for Netflix to reconsider – for the sake of a family and a nation so recently bereaved, as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers.”
Royal expert says season 5 will be ‘uncomfortable’ viewing for the royal family
A Netflix spokesperson said in a statement that The Crown has always been presented as historical fiction, and that season 5 will be no different.
“Series five is… imagining what could have happened behind closed doors during a significant decade for the royal family – one that has already been scrutinized and well-documented by journalists, biographers and historians,” they said.
No matter how truthful or outrageous the story is on screen, though, royal expert Kate Nicholl says season 5 viewing will be uncomfortable for the royal family.
“I think this series is going to be quite uncomfortable viewing, not just for Camilla and Charles but also for William and Harry,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Scenes leading up to their mother’s death are going to be very, very uncomfortable for them. This is a period that they had to live out so publicly.”
The Crown Season 5 will drop Nov. 9 on Netflix.
