The Crown" Gets Details of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Australian Tour Wrong
Diana's documentary "The Princess," which will air on HBO Max on August 13, includes a now cult short clip from the Crown Prince and Princess' 1983 tour of Australia.
Prior to this documentary, Season 4 of The Crown had explored the scenes depicted in this clip and their consequences for the royal couple, but got one important detail wrong. Here is what happened.
Prince Charles, speaking in Tasmania with Diana sitting behind him, told the assembled crowd:" The last time I was here was two years ago, in 1981, shortly before we were married." At that moment, everyone said, "Good luck!" or "I hope all goes well!" or, "How lucky you are to be engaged to such a wonderful woman!"
At this point in her husband's speech, Diana made a face that jokingly suggested that someone in that marriage was not so lucky (she probably meant that Charles was not so lucky to marry her, rather than vice versa).
This simple gesture of hers made the crowd laugh out loud: they loved her cheekiness and humor.
Charles stopped dead in his tracks, hearing the laughter but not knowing what it was. He looked a little frazzled at being overshadowed by his wife, but had a professional smile on his face the whole time.
Crown's description was accurate so far.
"It's amazing what women will do when their backs are turned," Charles joked. However, whereas in reality the crowd, including Diana, loved his joke and laughed hysterically, on Netflix his joke fell flat.
This was probably a deliberate choice on the part of the producers. Because the character of Prince Charles was portrayed as feeling very jealous of the attention his wife was getting.
And while we will never really know what really happened behind closed doors, Princess Diana herself admitted in a 1995 BBC interview that her husband was indeed jealous of her.
Basically, "The Crown" made Prince Charles look a little worse than he actually was in order to get the point across in a more impactful way.
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