According to royal biographers, Prince Philip was “very upset” by “shockingly evil” scenes about him in the TV series “The Crown.”
Philip – who died Friday at the age of 99 – was upset to learn how the royal show portrayed him as a serial womanizer who also once threatened Princess Diana daughter-in-law, royal experts told the Mail on Sunday.
The “most egregious” scene, however, was one where his father angrily blamed him for his sister’s death in a plane crash, biographer Sally Bedell Smith told the British newspaper.
The episode suggested that Philip would go to Germany in 1937 to visit his sister, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, but he was banned from doing so after getting into trouble at school.
His sister decided to fly to the UK to see him, but her plane crashed and killed her, her husband, their two sons and an unborn baby boy, as well as her mother-in-law, the episode’s report said.
The show portrayed Philip’s father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, who confronted his son at the funeral and told him, “You are the reason we are all here and burial my favorite child.”
Bedell Smith – who published a best-selling biography of the Queen – said Philip had “nothing to do with his sister’s death,” which never caused a split with his father.
“Cecilie was indeed killed in a plane crash … that’s all that was true,” she told the British newspaper. “Everything else was invented in a shockingly malicious way.”
While Philip and Queen Elizabeth II both refused to watch the controversial show, the Duke of Edinburgh was told about the storyline – which “upset him terribly,” Bedell Smith said.
Netflix “should apologize strongly,” said the biographer.
“And I think a disclaimer is needed more than ever,” she insisted on previous calls for the show to warn viewers that it was more of a drama than a historically correct retelling.
“Now that he’s gone, what they’ve done to his reputation is an even greater relief,” she said.
Another royal biographer, Hugo Vickers, also maintained that Philip had been “very upset” about the show.
“How shameful it was to turn Prince Philip into a caricatural person – I never did any work on the series,” he told the British newspaper.
The depiction was cruel and very unfair. The least Netflix could do was warn viewers with a disclaimer. “
Producers of “The Crown” said Friday they were “deeply saddened” by the news of Philip’s death, saying, “Our thoughts are with the royal family at this sad time.”
Actors Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies, who both played Philip, too posted tribute to the deceased prince.
However, Netflix and the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, did not respond when they were asked to apologize for Philip’s portrayal, according to the Mail on Sunday.