The Crown has recently released Season 4, which tells the story of a tumultuous time in the Royal Family's history as they react to the press attention around Charles (played by Josh O'Connor) and Diana (Emma Corrin).
The Netflix show's most recent season also shows an at-times hostile relationship between Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Coleman) and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson). All this drama has led to more people than ever asking a question that many have wanted to know the answer to after watching The Crown—does the real Queen watch the show, and what has she said about it.
As ever with Royal matters, the answers are complicated to get at. The Queen is famous for never expressing opinions. This is why it was so controversial when she allegedly expressed her displeasure about Thatcher when the then PM refused to support sanctions of apartheid-era South Africa (as seen in The Crown Season 4, where it is also stated that the palace still denies that the Queen ever did this.)
Though the Queen has not turned TV critic and given her opinion on The Crown, from time to time newspapers have reported from sources that claim she has indeed watched it.
The most notable of these was from the U.K.'s Sunday Express in 2017, when what they called a senior royal source told them that "[Prince] Edward [the Queen's son] and [his wife] Sophie love The Crown. It has been a longstanding arrangement that they drive to Windsor at the weekend to join the Queen for an informal supper while watching TV or a film.
"They have a Netflix account and urged her to watch it with them. Happily, she really liked it, although obviously there were some depictions of events that she found too heavily dramatized."
Of course, these claims, like so many made about the Royal Family (including those in The Crown itself) are unverified.
Royal author Angela Levin has claimed that she was told by Prince Harry (the Queen's grandson) himself that his family watched it. She said on TALKRadio in November 2020 that she asked Harry if he watched The Crown, to which she claims he replied: "Yes, we're all absolutely watching everything but I'm going to insist it stops before it reaches me." Bad news for fans who wanted to see the show tackle the infamous controversy that saw Harry photographed wearing a Nazi uniform at a costume party.
If the Queen does watch it, it may be without her husband Prince Phillip (Tobias Menzies in The Crown). In a 2017 Observer interview with Matt Smith who played Phillip in the first two seasons of The Crown, he recounted a story about a friend asking the Duke of Edinburgh at a dinner whether he watched the show, to which Phillip reportedly replied, "don't be ridiculous."
The Crown Season 4 is streaming now on Netflix.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
