The Crown risks another row with the palace by claiming the Queen and Prince Philip did not want Diana to have a state funeral – despite furious denial at the time that this was ‘the opposite of the truth’

Series six of The Crown will resurface a rumor that Buckingham Palace previously called ‘the opposite of the truth’ about Princess Diana’s funeral.

In the fourth episode of the final installment of Netflix’s royal drama, which hits the streaming platform on November 16, Prince Charles is reeling from the death of his ex-wife and struggling to keep it together as he prepares to her funeral.

Scenes from the episode show him at odds with his parents, the late Queen and Prince Philip, over the issue of a state funeral for Princess Diana.

In the drama, the royal couple suggest the funeral should be a ‘Spencer family matter’, while Charles insists a state funeral is necessary and appropriate.

However, this storyline flies in the face of an angry statement from Buckingham Palace in 1997, amid reports that there was behind-the-scenes disagreement over Diana’s funeral.

In the fourth episode of the new series, Charles returns from Paris, where he had traveled to collect Diana’s body. He discusses her funeral with his parents.

An argument ensues over whether Diana should be buried at Spencer’s private funeral or given a state funeral.

Prince Philip declares the funeral is a ‘Spencer family matter’.

Charles hits back, saying: ‘The Prime Minister believes in a public funeral, a state affair in all but name – and I agree with him.’

A state funeral was held for Princess Diana on September 6, 1997, a week after she died in a car crash in Paris

The Queen says: ‘That would mean leaving Scotland and taking part in a big spectacle in London.

Phili adds, “Do you really want to get the boys through? They would have to walk behind the coffin for all those cameras.’

Shortly after Princess Diana’s death, Channel 4 News reported that although Charles pushed for a state funeral for the mother of his sons, the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip disagreed with him.

Channel 4 also reported that Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, had fallen out with the royal family over her funeral arrangements.

The TV station said “high-level sources” in the palace had reported behind-the-scenes tensions over the funeral, claiming the Queen, her private secretary Sir Robert Fellowes and her aides wanted Diana’s body to rest in a private mortuary before the funeral .

According to the report, Charles angrily rejected the suggestion after a “blazing argument.”

In response to the report, Buckingham Palace strongly denied that senior royals wanted to give Princess Diana a private funeral.

The Palace released a strongly worded statement describing the report as “the opposite of the truth.”

In the stern rebuttal, the wording of which is almost unprecedented for the Royal Family, the statement read: ‘In the wake of the tragic death of the Princess of Wales, there has been a wave of speculation and inaccurate stories about the events leading up to and after the funeral. These stories need to be corrected.”

While the statement admitted there were “some minor disagreements over details,” these issues were “resolved quickly and amicably.”

It added that the stories reported by Channel 4 were ‘the direct opposite of the truth’.