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Prince Harry has “no control” over the storyline or material included in Netflix’s The Crown despite his partnership with the streaming platform, a source has claimed. In fact, they suggested, the Duke of Sussex had no idea how he will be portrayed in the upcoming season of the popular show.
The source, described as an LA based team member at Netflix, told The US Sun: “The world may think that Prince Harry’s deal with us means he has some control on the company’s output but it is not the case.
“He has some say in the content he produces for them, but outside of that the company remains independent. And one key aspect of that is The Crown. Harry has no control over what storylines or material Leftbank put together for The Crown.”
Leftbank Pictures is an independent production company which has been working on The Crown since its first season.
After claiming The Crown has “no part of” the Duke’s remit, the source also said: “And not only that, Harry does not have input in the scripts or narrative of the show either directly through Leftback or indirectly through Netflix.”
The Duke has “no opportunity” to send over to The Crown’s writers his ideas or suggestions either, the source added.
The fifth season of The Crown, which will run for a total of six seasons, will be released on the US streaming platform on November 9.
The upcoming episodes are expected to cover a fictionalised version of the events which took place within the Firm during the early to mid-1990s and to focus in particular on the breakdown of Princess Diana and King Charles’s marriage.
The show is believed to have recreated the 1994 Charles’s sit-down with Jonathan Dimbleby, during which he admitted to have been unfaithful to his wife, and the now notorious BBC’s Panorama interview between the late Princess of Wales and Martin Bashir, aired in November 1995.
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The choice to include the Panorama interview in the show was made despite Prince William expressed in no uncertain terms in May 2021 his desire for the interview to never be aired again after it was established by a probe Mr Bashir had obtained it through “deceitful” manners.
A palace source said last week the Prince of Wales had made his feelings about the interview “very clear” and that a fictional depiction would be “met in the way you would expect”.
The Crown, which has set the goal to turn into fiction events related to the Royal Family between the late reign of King George VI to modern days, has been heavily criticised by royal watchers following the release of its fourth series, which included the extra marital relationship of King Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, the now Queen Consort.
A number of royal commentators were joined by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, and the Culture Secretary at the time, Oliver Dowden, in requesting Netflix to add a health warning to The Crown to make sure viewers were aware it was a work of fiction rather than a documentary.
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The streaming platform, however, refused to do so, saying in a statement released in 2020 the The Crown had always been presented “as a drama”.
While the Prince of Wales hasn’t publicly expressed his feelings about The Crown, Prince Harry told James Corden during an interview in February 2021 he had watched parts of the show, adding he is “more comfortable” with The Crown “than I am seeing the stories written about my family or my wife or myself”.
The series, Harry said, is “fictional” but “loosely based on the truth” and provides an idea of how members of the Firm are “putting duty and service above family and everything else”.
Express.co.uk has contacted Leftbank Pictures, Netflix and the Duke of Sussex for comment.
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