7 Real-Life Scandals In HBO’s ‘The Princess’ That Should Be In ‘The Crown’ Season 5

In February, 1992, Princess Diana and Prince Charles made a visit to India together, during the final months of their marriage before they would announce that they were separating. On that trip, Diana visited the Taj Mahal by herself where a now-iconic photo was taken of the princess sitting alone, appearing contemplative. While Diana’s detractors used to criticize her for using any photo opportunity as a way to manipulate the royals and/or her public persona, how you view the photo is up to you. Was she truly lonely, or was she using the moment to earn public sympathy as a lonely, deserted wife? In The Princess, when she spoke of her peaceful moment on the bench, she said it was “a healing experience.” When pressed by a journalist to explain what she meant, she simply told him, “Work that out for yourself.”

In June 1992, royal reporter Andrew Morton released a tell-all biography of Diana’s life, Diana – Her True Story. The book featured intimate details of Charles and Diana’s marriage, her depression and suicide attempts, and her knowledge of Charles’s relationship with Camilla, and not long after the book was released, Diana acknowledged that she allowed some of her friends and family to provide Morton with details about her life. (The book would be re-released with even more interview transcripts after Diana’s death.) The book caused a frenzy and made Diana a media target, scrutinized more than ever by the critical media.

On November 20, 1992, a fire ravaged Windsor Castle, one of the Queen’s official residences. The cause of the fire was a spotlight inadvertently pressing up against a curtain, causing it to ignite. Large parts of the castle’s living quarters and towers were destroyed, resulting in over £36.5 million worth of damage. The Queen appeared in public to discuss the fire, explaining that 1992 was a horrible year for her family. But the fire wouldn’t be the last horrible thing to happen to her family that year.

On December 9, 1992, after months of speculation that their marriage was crumbling, Prime Minister John Major (who will be played by actor Jonny Lee Miller on season 5 of The Crown) announced to the public that Charles and Diana were separating. This announcement came just a few weeks after the Windsor Castle fire, and it would fuel even more speculation about both Diana and Charles’s extramarital affairs and general tumult at home.

It’s no secret that Prince Charles was always in love with the then-married Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana (and the general public) had a sense of his infidelities for years. But just after their separation was announced, in January 1993, leaked phone conversations between Charles and Camilla that were recorded in 1989 were made public. The conversations, which feature Charles wishing he was Camilla’s tampon, were equally scorned and celebrated as proof of what the whole world had suspected all along.

After their separation, it’s safe to say that press coverage of Diana was BONKERS. Now untethered from the monarchy, she attempted to live a slightly more private life, but thanks to increased media coverage and telephoto lenses, any semblance of privacy in her life disappeared. Charles, perhaps in an attempt for equal coverage, agreed to be the subject of an ITV documentary which aired June 29, 1994, during which he admitted to marital infidelity, stating he had been faithful, “until became clear that the marriage had irretrievably broken.” The interview and his admission sparked a media frenzy which likely led to Diana giving her own now-infamous interview in 1995.

I don’t know with certainty what the timeline for season 5 of The Crown is and where it will leave off, but I do know that British journalist Martin Bashir, who conducted the most infamous Diana interview of all in 1995, will be played on the show by British actor Prasanna Puwanarajah, and he is listed as a season 5 cast member. The BBC interview, which has since been investigated and Bashir’s ethics regarding how he gained the Princess’s trust in order to do the interview have been called into question, the revelations she made in the 1995 interview were nothing short of astonishing. The interview included Diana’s admissions of self harm and bulimia, as well as explaining, with regard to Charles and Camilla that “there were three of us in this marriage.” Though Diana agreed to participate in the interview, both of her sons have consistently condemned it since it was first broadcast.