SPOILER ALERT: This news story features details from Season 6 of The Crown
Prince Harry has distanced himself from a report that claimed he would watch his mother’s last moments in the final season of The Crown on Netflix.
A source close to the Duke of Sussex told Deadline that he would not stream the final season of Peter Morgan’s show due to the “sensitive nature” of its content.
Deadline understands that Prince Harry has no ill feelings towards The Crown’s creators or Netflix about the direction of Season 6. He was not consulted over the show and had no advanced sight of episodes.
Earlier on Thursday, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that Prince Harry would be tuning in having viewed previous seasons of The Crown.
The Telegraph’s royal editor Victoria Ward reported that a friend of Prince Harry’s may pre-view The Crown to save him any unnecessary trauma, but that the duke would ultimately tune in.
Prince Harry has admitted to watching the series in the past, most recently on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, when he joked that he fact-checks with a pen and paper.
In 2021, he told James Corden on The Late Late Show that The Crown gives a sense of “putting duty and service above family and everything else.”
He added: “I am way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing stories written about my family or my wife. That [The Crown] is obviously fiction, take it how you will.”
It is unlikely Season 6 would have been an easy watch for Prince Harry given it depicts the final weeks of Princess Diana‘s life and her tumultuous relationship with the press.
The Crown shows Prince William and Harry’s final call with Diana, which ends with mother and sons declaring their love for each other.
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In reality, Prince Harry has said that the conversation, which took place when he was aged 12, weighs “heavily” on his mind because he was in a “desperate rush to say goodbye.”
In a 2017 BBC documentary, he said: “If I’d known now obviously what was going to happen I wouldn’t have been so blase about it and everything else.”
Other moments that might have proved difficult for Prince Harry include a reference to Diana’s “ghost,” which has enraged TV critics in the UK, and scenes in which she is playful with the paparazzi.
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The Duke of Sussex blames the press for his mother’s death and does little to disguise his disdain for the intrusive tactics of photographers and journalists.
“Every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back,” he has said about his mother’s death.