Well, these scenes were just nowhere to be seen.
The Crown season five covers just a small window of time—beginning in 1991 and ending just before Princess Diana's tragic death in August 1997—with the Netflix drama packing six very dramatic years into just 10 episodes. Naturally, a few things got the cut.
While creator Peter Morgan managed to depict the majority of the biggest moments in the royal family's history—most noteworthy, the deterioration of Diana and King Charles III's marriage, there were several real-life events that didn't make it into the new season, which premiered Nov. 9.
For example, did you know that Queen Elizabeth II was the subject of a radio prank call in which she openly discussed the royal family's plans for Halloween? Or that Prince William spent several days in the hospital after suffering a serious head injury while he was at boarding school? And though Dr. Hasnat Khan is introduced in the new season, The Crown doesn't express just how serious his unexpected romance with Diana became.
So, it's time for a brief history lesson to discover which real-life events didn't make it into The Crown season five:
Queen Elizabeth II fell victim to a hoax from a Canadian radio station in October 1995, the sovereign spending seven minutes on the phone with radio DJ Pierre Brassard, who was posing as Canada's then Prime Minister, Jean Chretien.
During their chat, which was held in English and French, the queen discussed the royal family's Halloween plans and getting involved in Quebec's referendum from the country.
"We think it's annoying,″ a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said of the prank. "We think it's irritating. We think it's a waste of the queen's time."
As for Brassard, he told BBC Radio 4 that he had no regrets about his conversation with the queen.
"She is very funny," the impressionist said. "That kind of conversation is a good thing because we see the human side of the person."
Prior to their official separation December 1992, the couple went on a royal visit to South Korea—dubbed the "togetherness tour"--which proved volatile enough for the palace to realize their marriage was beyond repair. Per a 2021 article in The Express, a journalist who was on the trip said that there was a palpable "hatred that radiated" between Diana and Charles.
"We know that they're not," Charles' deputy private secretary Peter Westburcot told the press when asked if the couple were doing fine, "but we're doing our best with them." during the visit. Prime Minister John Major announced their separation just one month later.
Like Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles' infamous leaked phone call that is a major plot point early in the season, a private conversation between Diana and her close friend James Gilbey was published by The Sun in August 1992. In their early '90s chat, Gilbey referred to Diana as "Squidgy" dozens of times and the Princess of Wales compared her marriage to one featured in the British soap EastEnders.
Episode seven depicted Diana's first meeting with the heart surgeon—during a visit with a friend at a London hospital—and offered a brief glimpse at their relationship. But it was no casual fling. The couple dated privately for two years, ending their romance just weeks before Diana's death in August 1997.
In The Diana Chronicles, author Tina Brown said Diana referred to Khan as "the one," though the notoriously private doctor never spoke publicly about their relationship until 2008. He revealed the pair had discussed marriage and that Diana traveled with him to Pakistan to meet his family in 1996.
"She really enjoyed her time when she came here," Khan told the Mail on Sunday. "She also enjoyed the afternoon tea she had with my family. And I think she very much liked the Asian family's eccentric culture."
But the media attention on Diana proved too much for Khan to handle, the surgeon revealed in a 2008 inquest into her death.
"I knew I would not be able to lead a normal life," Khan explained in a statement at the time. "My main concern about us getting married was that my life would be hell because of who she was."
According to Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, Diana considered Khan her "soulmate."
"This was the man she loved more than any other and it was a very deep, spiritual relationship," Burrell said during the inquest. "I witnessed it at first hand and they were very much in love."
Accidentally hit by a golf club while at boarding school, an 8-year-old William suffered a severe head injury that required a two-day stay at the hospital in June 1991.
At the time, the AP reported a then 6-year-old Prince Harry was his first visitor after his 70-minute procedure and that Diana stayed in a private room at the London hospital to be near her son.
The Ludgrove school issued a statement denying any foulplay led to the prince's injury.
″No one was being nasty or unkind to Prince William," a spokesperson said. "He is a very much liked boy here at the school.″
While The Crown shows Queen Elizabeth's only daughter informing her outraged mother she would be remarrying after divorcing her first husband Mark Phillips, the December 1992 wedding between Anne and Sir Timothy Laurence is not shown.
The pair wed in front of just 30 guests in Scotland—the location made necessary because the church in England did not allow divorcees to remarry.
The Crown is streaming on Netflix.