The Crown’s Jonathan Pryce makes extraordinary claim that the palace ‘manipulated’ the British press to cover up Prince Philip’s ‘friendship’ with Penny Knatchbull

Actor Jonathan Pryce, who plays Prince Philip in The Crown, has for the first time expressed doubts about the portrayal of the late royal’s friendship with Penny Romsey.

Penny, Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was Philip’s riding partner and featured in series five of the Netflix show, played by British actress Natascha McElhone.

The actor said he had no prior knowledge of Philip’s friendship with Penny Bradbourne – maiden name Knatchbull – which, according to Pryce, made him believe the ‘British press was likely being manipulated to suppress these stories’.

He said: ‘The biggest thing I learned about him that I didn’t know came from my first meeting with Peter Morgan, when he told me the direction he wanted to take Philip’s character in and that he wanted to expose this and talk about it. relationship he had with Penny Romsey.

‘I didn’t know anything about this relationship. And I left Peter’s house thinking, “Do I want to be the guy who tells the world that Phillip has this friendship?”.

Penny, also known as Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was Philip’s riding partner and featured in series five of the Netflix show (pictured), played by British actress Natascha McElhone

Jonathan Pryce attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s “The Crown” Season 6 Part 1 at the Regency Village Theater on November 12

Mr Pryce added: ‘And I was very nervous about it and then I went to France and I thought I’m going to Google it – and I put the two names into Google and the European Google was full – page after page after page – with stories about Philip and Penny and that gave me a lot of confidence to approach that storyline.

‘But it also told me how the British press was likely manipulated to suppress these stories. And that was very interesting to discover what power the royal family could have, and Philip in particular.’

The crown, which is based on the royal family, but also woven into fictional storylines, sparked outrage during the release of season five as it suggested a ‘lonely’ Philip turned to Penny for ‘intellectual company’.

But even in real life, the Duke of Edinburgh’s close bond resulted in rumors of an affair due to their decades-long friendship, but the pair always strongly denied the accusation.

And rumors of a romance between the two calmed down somewhat after Penny also developed a close relationship with the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The second episode in the series showed the pair developing a close friendship following the death of Penny’s daughter Leonora from kidney cancer.

In the episode, Philip takes it upon himself to offer his condolences to the family after Leonora’s death – and finds Penny home alone.

The two discuss the grief and Philip hands her a bouquet of flowers. The pair then discuss marriage and Philip hints that he and the Queen have “grown in different directions.”

Philip encourages Penny to take up a hobby to distract her from the grief, before revealing that she has an old carriage in the garage of her house. Penny shows Philip a carriage in the garage. “Norton didn’t want to sell it, we were told it was beyond repair.”

Philip makes it his favorite project to renovate the carriage back to its former glory, before presenting it to Penny and inviting her for a ride.

Penelope (Penny) Romsey, also known as Countess Mountbatten of Burma, who befriended Prince Philip at a polo match in 1975 at the age of 20, became one of his closest confidantes despite being 32 years his junior and was pictured during walks with the duke the years

Prince Philip and Penny Knatchbull had a friendship that lasted decades after they bonded over their love of carriage driving. Here they are pictured at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2009

The pair sit in his car at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2009. The new season of The Crown will show Philip pursuing an affair with the Countess Mountbatten of Burma, it is reported.

The two laugh and joke with each other during an intimate drive through the countryside, their hands touching several times.

On their return to Penny’s house, they discuss setting up a charitable foundation in memory of Leonora, for which Philip has drawn up plans.

At the end of the episode, the Queen and Prince Philip discuss the idea of ​​keeping “secrets” from each other.

But a source familiar with the family called The Crown’s portrayal of Penny “deliberately cruel” and “needlessly unsympathetic.”

An acquaintance of the family – who had not yet seen the series – told me The Telegraph last year: ‘It’s one thing for a script to be rubbish, and another for it to be so deliberately cruel.

“I think they may have shot themselves in the foot with this, but for the majority it will simply pass them by.”