Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Sep 11, 2026

Queen's former employee on Diana scene in 'The Crown' that 'didn't happen'

Queen's former employee on Diana scene in 'The Crown' that 'didn't happen'

Former press secretary Dickie Arbiter has said it's wrong that aides discussed Diana's mental health before she went to New York.

A discussion of Diana’s mental health before she travelled to New York for a royal tour “didn’t happen” according to the Queen’s former press secretary.

Fans of The Crown have been able to binge the latest series after Netflix released all 10 episodes around the world on 15 November.

Season four charts the life and times of the Royal Family and key political events in the 1980s, with fans particularly keen on seeing the introduction of Margaret Thatcher and Lady Diana Spencer, later Diana, Princess of Wales.

In the final episode, royal aides gather to prepare to send Diana to New York for a solo royal tour.

Although she and Prince Charles are still together, she will be going on her own on the trip.

In the meeting, palace aides hint at Diana’s fragile mental health and her separation from her children, though her team insist she is in good health.


Diana Princess of Wales, played by Emma Corrin, in Netflix's The Crown.


But Dickie Arbiter, who worked for the Queen as her press secretary, poured cold water on the idea the aides would have discussed that.

He tweeted: “It didn’t happen. I was there.”

Arbiter also noted that Martin Chateris appears in the newest season, but that he retired in real life in 1977, so would not have been around.

It comes after Peter Morgan, the show’s creator and script writer, defended making up some elements of the drama.

He referred specifically to the opening episode as Lord Mountbatten, played by Charles Dance, gives Charles, played by Josh O’Connor, a telling off for pursuing Camilla, who at the time was married to Andrew Parker-Bowles.

The episode shows Mountbatten writing a letter to Charles, which the prince receives after Mountbatten’s untimely death as he is killed by an IRA bomb.

But there’s no record of the letter existing. Morgan said he believes the interaction is based in truth.


The Prince of Wales and Lord Mountbatten, in Nepal in 1975 at the coronation of King Birendra.


Speaking on the show’s official podcast, he said: “What we know is that Mountbatten was really responsible for taking Charles to one side at precisely this point and saying, ‘Look, you know, enough already with playing the field, it’s time you got married and it’s time you provided an heir’.

“As the heir I think there was some concern that he should settle down, marry the appropriate person and get on with it.”

He added: “In my own head I thought that would have even greater impact on Charles if it were to come post-mortem, as it were. I think everything that’s in that letter that Mountbatten writes to Charles is what I really believe, based on everything I’ve read and people I’ve spoken to, that represents his view.

“We will never know if it was put into a letter, and we will never know if Charles got that letter before or after Mountbatten’s death, but in this particular drama, this is how I decided to deal with it.”

The latest series of The Crown won rave reviews from critics but commentators and those who have worked with the Royal Family are less thrilled.

Royal photographer Arthur Edwards wrote in The Sun: “Charles and Diana did have very little in common.

“He preferred the countryside, while she was happier in Harrods.

“Some couples can overcome this but sadly they couldn’t.

“I do believe Charles when he says he did not rekindle the romance with ­Camilla Parker Bowles until his marriage to Diana had irretrievably broken down.

“I have known and worked with the Prince for 40 years and I don’t recognise the man portrayed in the new series of The Crown.”


Princess Diana at a Day Care Centre in the Lower East Side, New York in 1989.


Sally Bedell Smith, royal biographer, told Vanity Fair: “Because The Crown is such a lavish and expensive production, so beautifully acted and cleverly written, and so much attention has been paid to visual details about historical events, viewers are tricked into believing that what they are seeing actually happened.

“While the earlier seasons were period pieces, this is recent history, so it seems more cruel in its false depictions.”

The Crown season four is streaming now on Netflix.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Merz Rebukes AfD Expansion in Saxony-Anhalt
OpenAI Unveils GPT-6 and Says: "We May Already Have Reached AGI"
Congressman Accused Andrew of Sex Crimes in the United States
Donald Trump: "I'm Glad Harry and Meghan Left the United States"
Spicy Food Is Linked to Lower Death Risk — but It Is Not a Miracle Cure
AfD Enters Saxony-Anhalt Election at 41% in Historic Test for German Politics
Gen Z Turns to Investing as America's First-Home Dream Moves Further Out of Reach
TSA Unveils Major Airport-Security Overhaul as It Drops Gold+ Privatization Plan
CIA Chief Warned Russia Against Attacking NATO in Secret Moscow Mission
Raheem Sterling Charged With Dangerous Driving After Lamborghini Crash
The Secret Dolly Parton Kept Until Her Death: "She Was Much Sicker Than She Let On"
Glacier Collapse, Not Earthquake, Triggered Deadly Nepal-Tibet Flood
Turnbull Warns AUKUS Could Leave Australia Without Promised Nuclear Submarines
California Billionaires Pour More Than $150 Million Into Fight Over Proposed Wealth Tax
German Broadcaster Goes Dark to Warn AfD Could End Its Saxony-Anhalt Service
Badenoch Plans Major Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle as Tories Struggle in Third Place
Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Give Ukraine Classified Storm Shadow Blueprints for Domestic Missile Production
UK Graduate Job Vacancies Plunge 45% to Lowest Levels on Record
Iranian Hackers Shut Down British Power Plant for Four Days in Landmark Cyber Attack
Novak Djokovic Reveals Relentless Self-Doubt and Rejects Retirement in New Documentary
Trump Imposes 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods After Bilateral Trade Talks Collapse
Australia Combines Indigenous Fire Knowledge With Satellite Tech to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Father and Son Jailed in Scotland Over £900,000 Airport Cannabis Smuggling Operation
UK Fraud Reports Surge Sevenfold as Criminals Exploit QR Codes in Parking Meters and Phishing Emails
Brighton Thrash Aston Villa in Four-Goal Opening Half as Manchester City Trail Bournemouth
Erin Patterson Appeals Triple Murder Convictions After Hotel Mixed Sequestered Jury With Prosecution
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
A Sleepless Night on Wall Street: Nasdaq to Begin Nearly Round-the-Clock Trading
"The First in the World": 69-Year-Old Protested Artificial Intelligence—and Went to Jail
Ukraine's Ousted Defence Minister Calls for Wartime Presidential Election
China’s Lifelike AI Humans Move From Livestreams Into Real-World Service Roles
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
×