A rarely seen portrait of the late Princess Diana, taken by photographer David Bailey, graces the front page of Tatler in January

A rarely seen portrait of Princess Diana will grace the cover of Tatler’s January issue next year.

The black and white photo, taken by noted celebrity photographer David Bailey, is believed to have been taken in 1988 and appears to be part of the National Portrait Gallery collection.

The magazine will also feature a scathing piece on The Crown from historian Hugo Vickers told the publication that filmmakers of the hit show had “no interest at all” in the truth.

He writes, “It got progressively worse the closer it got to today. Actually, they were all terrible. It’s just that people found images from the 1950s less offensive than the saga they remembered – Prince Charles, Diana, Camilla etc.

‘I can only imagine how upsetting it will have been for the young members of the Royal Family to see the drama surrounding Diana’s fatal car crash take center stage in Series 6, not to mention her reported return as a ghost.

‘How low can the producers stoop?’

The portrait of Diana is believed to be from a shoot David, 85, did with the late Princess of Wales in the 1980s.

Last year, the legendary snapper revealed the secrets behind some of his most famous photos of royal figures.

The photographer, who has shot everyone from supermodels to the Queen during his long career, said Princess Diana had “terrible hair” while the “girly” monarch’s skin was “beautiful”.

Speak with The Telegraph, he recalled how his assistant dropped a light on Diana’s head during a 1988 shoot, adding: ‘I thought, ‘Oh f***!’. She said, ‘Don’t think about it; it was a terrible accident’.

“I told her she had been very magnanimous – that’s right, because she asked me what magnanimity meant.”

David is known for his striking black and white portraits, including one of Diana, then 27 years old.

English portrait photographer Norman Parkinson was initially suggested to take photos of Diana, but the royal family themselves chose Bailey – who had previously shot Princess Margaret’s husband, the Earl of Snowdon.

Elsewhere in the interview, he explained that Diana’s hair was “as sturdy as a plastic doll” because of the “hairspray.”

Meanwhile, Hugo’s Tatler story isn’t the first time The Crown has faced criticism, especially for its final season.

A famous photoshoot of Prince Charles and his two sons in 1997 is misrepresented in the latest series in response to Princess Diana’s new romance, a Mail podcast has revealed this week.

In the second episode of ‘The Crown: Fact or Fiction’, Mail royal expert Richard Kay revealed he was present at the Balmoral photocall portrayed in the hit series.

It took place about two weeks before Princess Diana died in a car crash and Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, 12, were seen posing with their father on the banks of the River Dee.

The latest series of The Crown attempts to present the photoshoot as a ploy by palace officials to respond to recently published photos of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed kissing on a yacht.

The character in the show calls a local photographer and he is shown taking the photos privately, which according to Kay, couldn’t have been further from the truth.

“Three days, I think, before the photos of Diana and Dodi were even published, we were told that there would be a photo interview at the palace of Charles and his sons, who would be arriving early in Balmoral,” Kay told the paper . podcast.

“I think there were about 40 of us: camera crews, photographers and a handful of reporters,” Kay added.

The second episode of the sixth series of The Crown presents the photoshoot as a rainy, windy day, when in reality the press and royals were basking in the sun.

Kay continued, “They performed, I think that’s the best way to put it. Charles was very nice, wished us all a nice day, the boys were clumsy, but they were young and didn’t like this kind of thing.’

A palace official organizing the event was even asked at the time whether the photo call was a response to the photos of Diana and Dodi, Kay recalled.

He said: ‘She absolutely angrily denied it and pointed out that it was organized before the photos of Diana and Dodi had even emerged so it was not a quid pro quo.’

Mail writer Robert Hardman and Mail on Sunday Royal Correspondent Natasha Livingstone also pulled scenes from the episode in which Diana raises awareness about the impact of landmines.

The Crown shows the princess taking a trip to Bosnia to meet survivors of the deadly buried weapons, recreating her famous walk through a mining area.

Diana didn’t even walk through a minefield in Bosnia. Instead, the photos that have become instantly recognizable were taken during a trip to Angola to promote the Halo Trust’s vital work in January 1997, months before the scene in The Crown took place.

Hardman also revealed that the “comedic press conference” portrayed in the series, which showed Diana being bombarded with questions about her personal life, never happened.

In the show she wore a badge that read ‘ReliefAid’, a charity based in New Zealand that has nothing to do with landmines.

At the time, she was raising awareness of the Landmine Survivors Network and wore a badge that read ‘British Red Cross’.

Her mission in Angola was to support another anti-mining charity, The Halo Trust.

Insiders at The Halo Trust said it was ‘a shame’ that Netflix bosses chose not to include them, as the series could have promoted the cause to The Crown’s global audience of 73 million viewers.

Livingstone said ReliefAid was “completely baffled when I contacted them about this” as they had “never worked in Angola and did not do any demining.”

She continued: ‘The Halo Trust said they had not been asked or consulted about the scene and would have been delighted to see their logo featured in the show.

‘It’s another opportunity [The Crown has] counterfeit things, for reasons unknown.”

See the full range in the January issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from Thursday 7 December.