The Crown will deal another blow to William and Harry with an over-dramatization of the last phone call with Princess Diana – despite the brothers insisting it was a ‘short and rushed’ conversation
The final series of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown will depict the last time Prince William and Prince Harry spoke to their mother, but it won’t be an actual reflection of the conversation.
The first part of series 6 covers the last weeks of Princess Diana’s life before the fatal car crash with Dodi Fayed on August 31, 1997 in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, but as a fictionalized version of events viewers expect to see some embellishment of the facts.
In episode four of the latest series, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is depicted as frustrated while in Paris with Dodi Fayed, and desperate to return to Britain to see her sons.
After missing one chance to speak to them on the phone, Diana finally manages to get on the phone with Prince William and Prince Harry, during which they have a heart-to-heart conversation.
However, according to Prince Harry and Prince William’s accounts of the last phone conversation he ever had with his mother, this version of events is not entirely accurate.
Series six of The Crown shows the last phone conversation Princess Diana shared with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry before she died
In the episode, Diana calls Balmoral, where her sons are on holiday with their father.
During the phone call, William asks his mother if she is going to marry Dodi Fayed, but Diana says no.
He then explains that all the newspapers in Britain are reporting that the couple is engaged.
Diana answers: ‘I am emphatically not going to marry Dodi. Honestly, I can’t wait to get home.”
Prince William and Prince Harry have spoken only once about their last phone call with their mother – and can’t remember much of what was said
William then asks his mother if everything is okay. She nods and says, “I’m doing well. It’s just a little crazy here. I don’t really understand how I ended up here. Mom just needs to make some changes in her life, that’s all. But that’s not your problem, that’s mine.’
In a tender moment she tells her sons that she loves them, and they respond that they love her too. She promises to return home to see them the next evening.
Later in the episode, Diana dies prematurely in a car accident.
While it is true that Prince William and Prince Harry shared a phone call with their mother on her last day alive, their memories of the phone call do not reflect the portrayal of the Netflix series.
In a 2017 documentary Diana: Our Mother, the princes discussed for the first time the details of their “desperately hurried” last phone call with the late royal family.
Recalling the conversation, they expressed regret at being desperate to get back out and play with their cousins, who were also at Balmoral.
Harry said: ‘I can’t necessarily remember what I said. But probably all I remember is regretting how short the call was for the rest of my life.
“And if I had known that was the last time I would speak to my mother – the things I would have said to her.”
The fact that Harry, who was 12 when his mother died, cannot remember the details of his last conversation with Diana suggests that it was not a conversation in which deep feelings were expressed, but rather an ordinary discussion, because neither Diana nor the princes knew. it would be their last conversation.
William also said of the phone call: “Harry and I were in a desperate hurry to say goodbye, you know, ‘see you later’.”