Among the millions of people watching the new season of The Crown this weekend will be someone who is an integral part of the story: Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
According to sources close to the royal, Camilla has watched previous seasons of the hit TV show and plans to watch series four, which depicts her as the long-time mistress of Prince Charles, and an obstacle in his marriage to Princess Diana.
“I imagine she’ll be tuning in with a glass of red wine to watch it, she has seen the previous series,” said a friend of the royal. “She has a wonderful sense of humor and this won’t fuss her in the slightest.”
The Queen and Princess Anne are said to have no interest in watching the Netflix drama—according to a family friend, “the Queen has no desire to watch herself in a fictitious TV program, while Anne has no time for such nonsense.” But Camilla, who is played by Emerald Fennell, is more curious about her on-screen persona.
“She has watched it, of course she has and I believe [Charles] has too,” added the source. “I don’t think she has any real issue with it. Her feeling is very much ‘never complain, never explain.’”
For years Camilla was the nation’s most reviled woman, blamed for the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage and ostracised by the Queen, who refused to even allow her name mentioned at the palace. In the new season of The Crown, which begins around the time of Charles and Diana’s courtship in 1980, Camilla is married to Andrew Parker Bowles but she is in constant contact with the Prince of Wales in the lead up to his wedding and the early years of his marriage to Diana. The show recreates the moment that Diana discovered designs Charles had made for a bracelet to give Camilla as a parting gift ahead of his wedding; on the show it becomes a private tete a tete between Charles and the Queen, when the heir is seen breaking down on the eve of his wedding.
According to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, who has written biographies of the Queen, Prince Charles and Diana, the portrayal of Charles and Camilla’s relationship is largely fictitious and could be “uncomfortable viewing” for the future king and his wife.
“Because The Crown is such a lavish and expensive production, so beautifully acted and cleverly written, and so much attention has been paid to visual details about historical events, viewers are tricked into believing that what they are seeing actually happened,” Bedell Smith told Vanity Fair. “While the earlier seasons were period pieces, this is recent history, so it seems more cruel in its false depictions.”
While Bedell Smith concedes that Charles really was that hesitant about marrying Diana, she believes from her extensive research that Charles was committed to making the marriage work. “Peter Morgan has created his own personal narrative of Charles and Camilla's relationship that is largely fictional. If Diana had been grounded and confident and clever, her other good qualities such as her sense of humor and natural warmth could have won Charles over in a heartbeat, and Camilla would have been history. Charles actually appreciated Diana's quick wit; during the engagement, he wrote to his grandmother about how funny Diana was.”
She continued, “He did not enter into the marriage cynically, thinking he could keep a mistress on the side. He was telling the truth when he said to Jonathan Dimbleby on camera in 1994 that he had remained faithful to his wedding vows until his marriage to Diana became ‘irretrievably broken down’ in 1986, when he resumed his intimate relationship with Camilla. It's fair to say that between 1981 and 1986, Charles and Camilla were in telephone contact when he was in distress and needed a sympathetic ear, but their physical relationship was in abeyance for five years.”
In the two decades since Diana’s death, Britons have largely forgiven Charles for his part in the failed marriage, and learned to accept and respect Camilla as the Duchess of Cornwall. Once persona non grata, she is now one of the most popular members of the royal family. And her role in the pandemic, which saw her stepping up as a front line royal supporting the Queen, has won her even greater respect.
Given that the fourth season will dredge up much of the misery and animosity of the past, Bedell Smith believes The Crown could “inflict some serious damage” for the monarchy.
“When I watched the relatively sympathetic depiction of Charles and Camilla in season three, I figured season four would lower the boom on both of them,” she said. “Charles and Camilla have come a long way with all their hard work, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Camilla in particular has transformed herself from a woman scorned to someone widely admired for her charitable work and respected for assuming her royal role with a genuine commitment. People have come to regard her as a good egg, and to accept the idea of her being queen consort. Because viewers believe incorrectly that The Crown is true, this season in particular could undo all the good feelings about Charles and Camilla and resurrect the hostility from two decades ago. It will also reinforce the false mythology that Diana was the sainted victim.”
Royal sources are also aware of the possible negative repercussions of the next series for Camilla and Charles and how the storyline might revive some of the ill feelings of the past, particularly with the ongoing controversy surrounding Martin Bashir’s 1995 BBC interview with Diana.
“Leading royal historians and experts have dismissed it as fiction but Netflix is playing a dangerous game because they’re making money out of characterizing people who are still alive and work very hard for the nation,” said one well-placed source. “If people are using the series as a textbook for royal history that’s a worry. Netflix has a duty to be upfront about its programming and the producers should be more honest about what is fact and what is fiction.”
The source added that the series does a disservice to Camilla. “Camilla falls into the baddie category which is to completely simplify her. I would hope people judge Camilla on what they have seen over the past 15 years. She is a mother, a grandmother, and now a hard-working member of the Royal Family. Her work speaks for itself, her work with literacy and with the victims of domestic violence for example is very important. Duty is incredibly important to her and she will be by Charles’ side in Germany this weekend. It’s a shame The Crown doesn’t capture that side to her.”
If they do watch The Crown, however, it might be a few days late. Charles and Camilla are scheduled to make their first overseas trip since the pandemic began this weekend, traveling to Berlin for the Central Remembrance Ceremony on Sunday to commemorate the country’s annual National Day of Mourning, It will be the first time a member of the royal family has taken part in the event.
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