Tag: King Charles III

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King Charles III

King Charles III thinks the Sussexes will come back when they need money?

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In his first address to the nation, King Charles III made a surprising amount of news and almost all of it was about his sons. Charles notably announced that William and Kate would be getting the Prince of Wales/Princess of Wales titles, which means that George, Charlotte and Louis are all now “of Wales” rather than “of Cambridge” or “of Cornwall.” Prince George of Wales, etc. Wales will be what they use as surnames (i.e. George Wales) for school and what have you. Interestingly, King Charles III did not use any titles in reference to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. He said: “I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.”

That one sentence launched a thousand thinkpieces about what’s really going on and what Harry said to his father and what Charles wants, etc. My interpretation: Harry has made it clear that regardless of what happens next, he and Meghan consider Montecito their home. I also think Charles probably prefers that, but I also believe that Charles knows that there can’t be this constant transatlantic beef between them. Other people had different theories about what the new king meant. Like this guy.

The King, 73, spoke of both of his children in the address, saying he wished to “express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas”. The Sussexes’ decision to step back as senior royals and move to the US caused a rift in the Firm – but a royal expert says Charles’ comments showed he was trying to heal old wounds.

Royal expert Nigel Cawthorne said the words showed he wanted the couple back “in the fold”.

He told The Sun: “That was rather interesting. [King Charles] is obviously trying to paper over the cracks there and try and draw them back into the fold. And when you think about it, Harry and Meghan may be getting a Netflix contract in the US, but they’ve played their trump card of being royal. In 20 or 30 years times how will they make their money? If they come back that’s a job for life. It was an olive branch. I think he wants them back in the fold. Because he won’t be able to visit them and his grandchildren in California without palaver.”

[From The Sun]

Literally no one considers the idea that Harry and Meghan are creating generational wealth with their business deals and contracts? It’s not like “whoops, we used up $120 million in a couple of years, we better beg the king to take us back!” Besides, as I said, I don’t even think Charles wants them back, nor do the Sussexes want to go back. Charles just wants to stop the bleeding, he wants the Montecito royals to not be his biggest liability. The problem is, he’s still treating them like complete sh-t and even if they never spoke again, they would still be a huge liability.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, WENN.

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Kate Middleton King Charles III Prince William royals

Scobie: No plans for an ‘extravagant’ coronation or Prince of Wales investiture

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Since the end of the official mourning period for the Windsors, there’s been a noticeable shift – basically, we’ve only seen King Charles and the new Prince of Wales and Princess of Wales. How long do you think KC3 will be able to keep this up, just keeping the “focus” on himself, his heir and his heir’s wife? Not very long, especially since this family spent the entire month, the entire year and the past four years scapegoating Harry and Meghan for everything. Still, the conversation is about the “slimmed down monarchy” and how there are fewer people in all of these royal residences. Omid Scobie’s Yahoo UK column this week is about how William, Kate and Charles must be smart about excess and the appearance of luxury, ostentation and waste, especially as it appears like the UK is entering a pretty brutal recession:

Little fanfare in Wales: When William and Kate arrived in Anglesey for their first official visit to the country as the newly-minted Prince and Princess of Wales, there was little fanfare as they chatted to locals on the small, rural island they once called home. The day of engagements, Kensington Palace told us, was a chance for the couple to focus on “deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales” after taking on their new titles.

The Prince of Wales investiture: Alongside the visit also came word from officials that William has no plans to carry out the same extravagant investiture his father did when he became the Prince of Wales in 1969. The news was enthusiastically welcomed by people in Wales, who remember all too well the over-the-top ceremony at Caernarfon Castle which saw the Queen place a gold coronet on Charles’ head and drape grand robes around his shoulders. During a time of economic struggles in the country, it was so poorly received that there were protests and even a bomb plot.

Middle class monarchy: Images of Royal Family’s ostentatious display of wealth and power is a moment no one is looking to repeat. And with the UK’s ongoing cost of living crisis—which this week saw the Bank of England warn of a “significant” interest rate rise and the British pound hitting a record low against the US dollar—cutting back on unnecessary frills and faff should be part of a concerted effort to ensure that the monarchy does not seem grossly out of touch.

Slimmed down monarchy: We are only days into a new regency and already that slimmed down “modern” monarchy King Charles III dreamed of creating is becoming a reality. A more nimble line-up with a hard focus on connecting rather than alienating people across the UK. Charles and the rest of the family have the opportunity to truly modernise The Firm if they listen to what the public tells them.

KC3’s coronation: Plans for a “mindful” and “pared down” coronation have long been in the works for the new king, I’m told, which is said to be scheduled for late spring next year. Far from the majestic scenes of Queen Elizabeth II arriving at Westminster Abbey in a golden carriage for a three-hour spectacle (costing £1.57 million—the equivalent of £43 million today), those on various iterations of planning committees for King Charles’ coronation have always discussed the importance of keeping his ceremony simple. And not just for the sake of cost. As a less popular monarch than his mother, the public interest in such an occasion will be far from the nationwide excitement felt when the Imperial State Crown was placed on the head of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Charles has requested some stuff be removed from his coronation: With the country currently on the brink of recession, the optics of anything more than a symbolic swearing-in ceremony would only do harm to any legacy King Charles III hopes to create. “There are many elements that [Charles] himself has requested be removed to ensure that it’s kept simple,” a senior royal source told me earlier this year. “He is aware that it needs to be mindful and in touch.”

[From Yahoo UK]

Scobie also mentions that Kate referenced the “cost of living crisis” while they were in Wales this week. Which, as I said previously, isn’t actually coming across the way they hoped? We know about Kate’s endless new coats, her four homes and the fact that she’s moving into Windsor Castle. Instead of trying to *appear* like they understand the economic realities of modern Britain, perhaps they could actually live less excessive lives? Charles has all of this royal estate now, perhaps it’s time to turn a lot of those palaces and castles into museums? I also wonder if paring down the glamour and excess will leave KC’s coronation looking pretty dull. I mean, he already *owns* the gold carriage. It’s not like he has to buy one. He just has to take it out of storage. Therein lies the rub, though – it’s not as if anyone in this family would actually donate all of the gold carriages and blood diamonds they stole from centuries of pillaging, racism and colonialism. So their solution is “don’t remind people about how much we stole and how much we have.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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King Charles III Meghan Markle Prince Harry royals

King Charles felt ‘tremendous flickers of hope’ for unity with the Sussexes

king-charles-felt-‘tremendous-flickers-of-hope’-for-unity-with-the-sussexes

It should be said again and again: King Charles III and the whole palace operation proved to be utterly incompetent and tone-deaf in the days following Queen Elizabeth II’s death. The immediate focus was not on QEII, but on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Charles and Prince William were really feeling themselves as they launched a full assault on Harry and Meghan for daring to want to travel together to Balmoral. A source close to the new king said: “Charles told Harry that it wasn’t right or appropriate for Meghan to be in Balmoral at such a deeply sad time. It was pointed out to him that Kate was not going and that the numbers really should be limited to the very closest family. Charles made it very, very clear Meghan would not be welcome.” Not right or appropriate for Harry to travel with his wife and mother of his two children. Meghan “would not be welcome” because, as other palace insiders insisted, it was “wholly inappropriate” and Balmoral was for “family” only. And Meghan isn’t “family” to them.

That set the tone for everything that followed, with Charles and William’s aides once again briefing the media about all things Sussex, with all of the messiness about who was allowed to wear military uniforms and who wasn’t. The fact that Charles and his staff want everyone to know that they’re snubbing two little kids by publicly refusing to acknowledge their royal titles. The fact that Charles invited and then uninvited the Sussexes to a diplomatic mixer. And it just keeps going, because now King Charles’s aides are briefing the media that the king thinks there’s a “thaw” in relations.

Hopes of a thaw in the ‘cold war’ between The Firm and the Sussexes emerged last night after royal insiders revealed that King Charles saw ‘tremendous flickers of hope’ when he spoke to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the Queen’s funeral – and even believes he might even be able to salvage the relationship with the duke and duchess.

The King’s conversations with his son and daughter-in-law at the ceremonies for the late monarch at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle left him feeling hopeful that he could mend relations with the Sussex after their acrimonious departure from the royal family.

An insider told The Telegraph: ‘It remains the case that the King loves both of his children. Over the last 16 days or so, there were tremendous flickers of hope. In terms of the future, there is hope of a cause for unity.’

Among the many challenges facing the King in his reign, including modernising Britain’s ancient monarchy, will be how to deal with the duke and duchess, who plunged The Firm into crisis after quitting public duties for a life free from royal obligations in California – from where they have made a string of damaging allegations against the institution.

[From The Daily Mail]

This is how Charles thinks he needs to rewrite the narrative which he set himself in the first ten days as king. Instead of actually focusing on his kingship, he played petty games and now he’s reaping all of the petty prizes. If anything, what the mourning period and funeral showed the Sussexes was that they were right to go, right to stay away and right to start the process of cutting ties from these awful people. As I’ve said before, the only “win” here for all parties is to stop the bleeding, which would mean William and Charles making a commitment to stop scapegoating and briefing against the Sussexes entirely. Which isn’t going to happen.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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King Charles III royals

Low: King Charles is ill-tempered, dysfunctional & he ‘falls under people’s spell’

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Valentine Low’s Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown was excerpted in the Times. Most of the excerpts – and most of the headlines from those excerpts – were about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and “bullying” and the organized and unhinged smears against M&H. I wondered idly if that’s what the whole f–king book was about. Nope – it turns out that Low did cover/transcribe what then-Prince Charles’s courtiers said about him. After reading all of those ridiculous statements from Kensington Palace’s courtiers, would it surprise you to hear that Charles’s call-at-any-hour, workhorse energy is spoken about a lot differently than Meghan’s work ethic?

Charles is a demanding boss. Working for him is not a nine-to-five job. This, according to one former member of his household, is because he is very demanding of himself. “He is never satisfied with himself, or what he has achieved. People around him had to work hard to keep up. He had enormous stamina.” Another said: “He was demanding in that he is always working. Seven days a week. Never stops. At any moment he may want to call you about something. Working on his boxes, on his ideas, on his papers. The pace is pretty intense.” The phone calls could come at any time, from after breakfast until 11 at night, even at Christmas. In contrast to the conviviality of his grandmother’s household, Charles’s office is suffused with a ferocious work ethic: he is a man with a mission.

Oh, Charles has a temper, wow! “He would drive people hard. He was full of ideas, always asking people to go and do things. The workload as private secretary would be immense. He had strong opinions. He also had a proper temper on him, which was quite fun. He would rarely direct it at the individual. It would be about something, and he would lose his temper. He would throw something. He would go from zero to 60 in a flash, and then back down again. Things would frustrate him, especially the media.”

Charles can’t keep staff either, how weird: In the space of about seven years, Charles had five different private secretaries. Promotion, preferment, who’s in, who’s out: no wonder Charles’s household has been compared to Wolf Hall.

Charles’s office is full of dysfunction: In her book on Prince Charles, Catherine Mayer quotes a businessman who helped to set up an event with the prince’s household and later spoke “with amazement” about the “glaring flaws” in its organisational structure. He got the impression that aides used to obstruct planning so they could tell the boss of problems, which they would then solve. “There was a lot of backstabbing,” he said. According to another insider, some courtiers, though loyal and able, are also cunning and “involve themselves in the dark arts of undermining other people”.

Charles goes outside the palace walls for advice, to disastrous results: Charles was not always a good judge of who should have his ear. Jimmy Savile, the broadcaster and charity fundraiser who, after his death, was revealed to have been a serial sexual abuser, wrote a handbook for Charles on how the royal family should deal with the media after big disasters. Charles passed on his tips to the Duke of Edinburgh, who in turn showed them to the Queen.

Charles falls under people’s spells: One of Charles’s former members of staff said the most pernicious effect of his outside advisers was the way they suggested that his usual team were not doing a good job. “The prince is quite susceptible to new voices who tell him, ‘They are stopping you doing what you want to do. They are holding you back, the suits.’ He loves it when someone says, ‘Oh, they have got it wrong, sir, listen to me. I can see it better; I am outside of this.’ The prince falls under people’s spell. That could then lead to real problems for individuals.”

[From The Times]

Low includes several stories of Charles bitching out various aides and keeping aides glued to their phones over weekends and holidays, awaiting his calls over non-urgent business. Low includes stories of Charles’s short temper and the real crisis of leadership and management within his dysfunctional office. It’s actually giving me a better sense of just how poorly Meghan was treated and how thoroughly she was scapegoated. As for Charles “falling under people’s spells” and, equally, being a terrible judge of character, welp, now he’s the king. It will only get a lot worse now.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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King Charles III Meghan Markle Prince Harry royals

King Charles will decide on Archie & Lilibet’s titles ‘further down the line’

king-charles-will-decide-on-archie-&-lilibet’s-titles-‘further-down-the-line’

Ellie Hall at Buzzfeed had a somewhat exhaustive look at the issue of royal titles for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s two children, Archie and Lilibet. Currently, the kids are not referred to, in the public sphere, with any royal title. They appear in the line of succession with the surname Mountbatten-Windsor, even though they automatically became prince and princess the moment QEII passed away. The institution of the monarchy simply refuses to acknowledge that though – it’s not King Charles III “giving” Archie and Lilibet titles, it would need to be Charles taking them away. Despite the royal commentators trying to pretend that Meghan and Harry spent the mourning period “arguing” with Charles about the titles, I believe they’re sitting back and waiting to see what Charles does now. Harry and Meghan already said their piece to Oprah, that they were told that their children wouldn’t get royal titles, that the Letters Patent would be changed to remove the titles from their kids, the first mixed-race royal children in the line of succession. Ellie Hall tried to parse what’s happening now:

We’re more than two weeks into the reign of King Charles III and there’s still no answer to one seemingly simple question: will his grandchildren, Archie Harrison and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, become a prince and princess, to be addressed as “their royal highnesses,” or won’t they?

Buckingham Palace has said multiple times that it won’t be addressing that question until after the official mourning period for Queen Elizabeth II ends on Sept. 26 — although in press briefings, the royal spokespersons have given some eyebrow-raising quotes when asked about when the decision about titles will be made, in one instance replying “the future is an amazing thing,” as reported by the Daily Mail.

In a speech delivered on Sept. 9 just shy of 24 hours after the announcement of the Queen’s death, the new King gave his other son and daughter-in-law, the royals best known as Prince William and Kate Middleton, the titles of Prince and Princess of Wales. Within hours of the King’s speech, the page on the royal family’s official website listing the line of succession was updated with the new Wales titles for William, George, Charlotte, and Louis. (The children were previously Princes and Princess of Cambridge; they’re now Princes and Princess of Wales.) But Archie and Lilibet were — and, as of press time, remain — “Mountbatten-Windsors.” If Buckingham Palace is to be believed, those quick website updates for William and his kids were a fluke, a one-off.

When asked about why Archie and Lilibet’s titles hadn’t been updated on the royal family’s official website during press briefings, the King’s spokespersons somewhat evasively replied that they were waiting for further information from an unspecified party. “We will be updating the website as and when we get information,” one spokesperson said, as reported by the Sunday Times. The Press Association even titled its Sept. 10 story “Palace waits for information on Archie and Lili’s titles before website change,” as if it is a decision to be made by an outside force.

Without question, the best official response to a media query about the Sussex children’s titles and the royal family’s official website was made by a spokesperson who referenced King Charles III’s inaugural speech, in which the King said, “I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.”

“While the website was updated for the Waleses, clearly updating love on a website doesn’t quite work so we’ve not quite done that but clearly he does love [the Sussex children],” the spokesperson said, as reported by Hello! Magazine on Sept. 10.

Another spokesperson for the King confirmed the accuracy of the quotes above via email and said that “the focus now is on mourning the Queen, and [the issue of Archie and Lilibet’s titles] is something for further down the line.” The spokesperson declined to provide further specifics on how long that line might be.

[From Buzzfeed]

To be clear, this is entirely Charles’s mess and he’s the only one who can clean it up. Like everyone else in that ghastly family, he painted himself into a corner and he’s screwed either way. If he goes ahead with his original plan of changing the Letters Patent and taking away Archie and Lilibet’s titles, then he’ll look racist, punitive and evil. If he does nothing and allows Archie and Lilibet to retain their titles under the Letters Patent, then congrats, all of his grandchildren are princes and princesses and he’ll have to treat them accordingly (which he also doesn’t want).

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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Kate Middleton King Charles III Meghan Markle Prince Harry Prince William royals

Telegraph: Prince Harry was told it was ‘protocol’ to not bring Meghan to Balmoral

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Again, in the 72-hour period of Queen Elizabeth II falling ill, passing away and King Charles taking over, the institution of the monarchy was almost solely focused on smearing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. QEII passed away on a Thursday. All of the biggest headlines on Thursday, Friday and Saturday were about how Prince Harry had to charter a plane up to Balmoral, how Meghan didn’t travel with him, how Charles called Harry to berate him over his plan to fly up with Meghan, how Charles told Harry that Meghan was unwelcome, how palace aides were furious and aghast that Harry would want to travel with his beloved wife. It was one of the grossest, most ridiculous and ill-timed smear campaigns – instead of focusing solely on QEII and her legacy, we were getting endless leaks from two royal courts, William’s court and Charles’s court. Those two men were bizarrely focused on the Sussexes rather than QEII.

At some point, William and Chuck realized that their messy campaign actually looked grotesque and cruel, so then they changed tack and tried to play it like Harry insulted them by not dining with them. Nevermind the fact that absolutely NO ONE can get their stories straight about who told what to Harry and when, and we still don’t know if Charles actually informed Harry about QEII’s passing before the family announced it. Well, now the Telegraph has an exhaustive timeline of events and guess what? They can’t even figure out parts of what happened that day, September 8th. Some highlights:

The Sussexes were enjoying that trip before the news about QEII: The Sussexes were fresh from a one-day trip to Dusseldorf on Tuesday, considered by their team and fans to be a triumph. Photos showed a rapturous welcome for a red-carpet walkabout. They looked happy and relaxed. The security arrangements seemed to go without a hitch, with the bonus of a Luftwaffe jet to and from the UK to prove their point about being internationally important persons. They even managed to squeeze in some “private” events, including an on-stage interview starring both Harry and Meghan, with a host and microphones, in the middle of a spotlit football stadium. (“Does ‘private’ now just mean ‘you’ll have to watch it on Netflix?’ ” one journalist was heard to quip, after footage emerged on social media.)

Charles didn’t seem to know about QEII’s health on Wednesday night: If some members of the family had known that the Queen’s health had taken a downturn the night before, Harry had not received that call. Prince Charles was hosting a dinner at Dumfries House, seemingly unaware that anything was badly amiss. The Duchess of Cornwall was making her way painstakingly back to Scotland from engagements down south, via Heathrow delays.

How much time did Charles wait in between calling William & Harry? Prince Charles telephoned both Prince William and Prince Harry to ask them to come. “There was no difference in those calls,” one source insisted, denying reports that the elder was told “some time” before the younger. “This is a father and his much-loved sons.”

Kate staying behind in Windsor: The Duke of Cambridge, whose constitutional duties as one of the Queen’s Counsellors of State blended with his role as a grandson, made a hastily-formed plan with the Duchess, agreeing that she would be best placed to meet their three children from their first full day at their new school and explain what was happening in a way they could understand.

Meghan was forced to stay home because Kate was staying back: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be travelling to Scotland,” their spokeswoman said, a little before 2pm. As it happened, she would not go. The confusion, The Telegraph understands, was the result not of a pushy Duchess and in-laws who didn’t want her there, but logistics. Assuming the situation to be not unlike what would have happened had the Queen died while Harry was in California, their team thought she would fly with him for support. By the time Prince Harry spoke to his father again, it became clear that spouses, including the Duchess of Cambridge, were not going. “It was just a mistake,” said a source familiar with how the day unfolded. “This wasn’t about causing or taking offence, it was simply the protocol and they [the Sussexes] were always going to respect that.” “The lie of the land was made clear,” said another, simply.

When & how did Harry hear of QEII’s passing? Prince Harry, on a plane, was initially said to have found out that his grandmother had died via a phone call from his father, “five minutes” before landing. The Telegraph has since been told that the phone call did not go through. While he knew his father was trying to get in touch with him, it was said last night, the Prince read a breaking news announcement online before they could work the technology to speak. A spokesman for the now-King has insisted the announcement of the Queen’s death “was not made until all family members had been informed”. “The official announcement was delayed until after everybody had been told,” a source said. “Part of the issue was getting hold of the Duke of Sussex.”

Whether Harry refused a dinner invitation: In one account – staunchly denied by several people yesterday – a furious Prince Harry “snubbed” dinner at his father’s nearby home at Birkhall with the new King and Prince of Wales. In another, Princes Charles and William had already left for Birkhall by the time Harry arrived. “No invitation to dinner was made,” one source insisted. “This is all less co-ordinated and more chaotic than people might think,” a different royal source added candidly. “It was a hard and upsetting day for everyone.”

[From The Telegraph]

“By the time Prince Harry spoke to his father again, it became clear that spouses, including the Duchess of Cambridge, were not going.” For the last time, the Countess of Wessex was there. Sophie traveled in the same plane and same car as William, Andrew and Edward. Initially, the palace sources made a big deal about how Meghan should have known that it was “family only,” as if Harry isn’t her family, as if she isn’t mother to two of King Charles’s grandchildren. This whole idea that there’s any kind of g–damn “protocol” about which spouses count as family and which spouses don’t count as family is absurd, offensive and racist. In any case, it’s absolutely clear from the smears aimed at Harry and Meghan that the entire controversy was actually about William and Kate, and how Kate got left behind in Windsor. If Meghan had gone with Harry to Balmoral, the conversation would have been “so why didn’t Kate go?” Nevermind that Kate genuinely had a good excuse – it was her kids’ first day of school, of course she would want to be with her children. But it looks like William threw a huge tantrum about how his brother’s supportive, loving marriage would reflect poorly on his own cold, stilted marriage.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.

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King Charles III is so worried about the ‘exploitative’ Season 5 of ‘The Crown’

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It’s so funny to me to think that the Windsors were gleefully spreading around their own wishful thinking as “fact” in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Royal sources were eager to tell British outlets that they believed many books and projects would be put on hold, rewritten or canceled altogether. Instead, Katie Nicholl’s book is already making headlines, as is Valentine Low’s and Angela Levin’s. I have every reason to believe that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s projects were only paused temporarily for a couple of weeks. And Netflix said FULL STEAM AHEAD! Over the weekend. Netflix confirmed that The Crown Season 5 will start on November 9th, which was likely always going to be the premiere date. Netflix also dropped this teaser:

The first teaser for ‘THE CROWN’ Season 5 has been released.

The series releases on November 9 on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/vQrGU9pCRy

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 24, 2022

I can’t wait. People are so excited for this season! It’s the “war of the Waleses,” during John Major’s run as prime minister. It will apparently feature dramatizations of then-Prince Charles’s Jonathan Dimbleby interview and Diana’s Panorama interview. Ahead of the Season 4 premiere two years ago, Charles organized a completely unhinged PR campaign against Netflix and The Crown. “Sources close to Charles” cried for weeks and months about how The Crown got everything wrong. Well, now Charles is king. So he’s putting the full f–king weight of Buckingham Palace behind his campaign against The Crown now. From the Telegraph:

Buckingham Palace has moved to protect the reputation of the King as Netflix prepares to dramatise the “all out war” of his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales in a new series of The Crown. The timing of its release could not have been worse for the King, whose popularity has surged since he became monarch, as it will remind viewers of the darkest years of his life, when he was the least popular member of the Royal family.

A senior royal source stressed on Sunday that The Crown is “a drama not a documentary” in the first sign of a push back against what will be uncomfortable viewing for the Palace.

Netflix decided not to delay the release of the fifth series, despite the death of Queen Elizabeth, whose “annus horribilis” in 1992 will be covered by the new episodes. It was the year in which Windsor Castle partly burnt down and both Prince Charles and Prince Andrew separated from their wives and the Princess Royal divorced Mark Phillips.

A spokesman for the streaming giant said the series had been completed before the Queen’s death and that no changes to it had been made.

A friend of the King described the drama as “exploitative” and said Netflix would have “no qualms about mangling people’s reputations”, even the late Queen’s. The source added: “What people forget is that there are real human beings and real lives at the heart of this.”

The King has never watched The Crown or passed comment on it, but the Queen Consort does watch it and made light of her own portrayal on screen by inviting Emerald Fennell, who plays her on screen, to an International Women’s Day reception at Clarence House earlier this year.

Royal aides believe the King and the Queen Consort will be better able to counter the portrayal of themselves in The Crown now that they have higher profile roles. Worldwide interest in the couple will be higher than it has been for decades after billions of people watched Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.

One well-placed source said: “You will see the King and the Queen Consort on state business in the UK and abroad and people will have more of an opportunity to compare the real people with the fiction they see in The Crown. In the past they didn’t get so much coverage, so in that sense it was harder for people to be able to compare and contrast the drama with the reality.”

[From The Telegraph]

As we said many times around Season 4, if ten hours of prestige streaming content can ruin a prince’s reputation, then perhaps Charles’s careful twenty-year rehabilitation isn’t as strong as he thinks. Season 4 – and the Windsors’ reaction to it – showed that support for Charles and Camilla is a mile wide and an inch deep. As soon as people remember or learn about all of the sh-t he did to Diana in the 1980s and 1990s, it’s game over. Honestly, Season 5 is going to be so much worse than Season 4 as well – I hope The Crown shows the depth of the public hatred for Charles, and the dawning realization (from his own mouth) that he married Diana as little more than a broodmare, because his father forced him to.

Photos courtesy of Netflix, Avalon Red.