The final season of Netflix royal drama The Crown will show the last time Prince William and Prince Harry spoke to their mother – but it won’t be a true reflection of the conversation.
The first part of Series 6 will cover the final weeks of Princess Diana’s life before the fatal car crash with Dodi Fayed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997, but viewers can expect a fictionalized version of events around to see an embellishment of the facts.
In episode four of the final series, the late Diana, Princess of Wales is depicted as frustrated while in Paris with Dodi Fayed and desperate to return to the UK to see her sons.
After missing an opportunity to speak to them on the phone, Diana finally manages to have a phone conversation with Prince William and Prince Harry, during which a warm exchange takes place between them.
However, according to Prince Harry and Prince William’s accounts of the last phone call he ever had with his mother, this version of events isn’t entirely accurate.
The sixth season of “The Crown” shows the last phone call that Princess Diana had with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry before her death
In the episode, Diana calls Balmoral, where her sons are on holiday with their father.
During the phone call, William asks his mother if she is going to marry Dodi Fayed, to which Diana says that she is not.
He then explains that all the newspapers in the UK are reporting that the couple are engaged.
Diana replies: “I’m definitely not going to marry Dodi.” “To be honest, I can’t wait to get home.”
Prince William and Prince Harry have only spoken once about their last phone call with their mother – and can’t remember much of what was said
William then asks his mother if she is okay. She nods and says, “I’m fine.” It’s just a little crazy here. I don’t really understand how I ended up here. Mom just needs to make some changes in her life, that’s all. But that’s not your problem – it’s mine.’
In a tender moment she tells her sons that she loves them, and they respond that they love her too. She promises to return home the next evening to see them.
Later in the episode, Diana dies far too early in a car accident.
Although it is true that Prince William and Prince Harry spoke to their mother on the phone on the last day of her life, their memories of the phone call do not reflect the depiction in the Netflix series.
In the 2017 documentary Diana: Our Mother, the princes discussed for the first time the details of their “desperately rushed” final call with the late royal.
Recalling the conversation, they expressed regret that they were keen to get back outside and play with their cousins, who were also at Balmoral.
Harry said: “I don’t really remember what I said.” But I probably just remember that I regretted for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.
“And if I had known that this would be the last time I would speak to my mother – the things I would have said to her.”
The fact that Harry, who was 12 at the time of his mother’s death, cannot remember the details of his last conversation with Diana suggests that it was not a conversation in which deep feelings were expressed – but rather an ordinary discussion, since neither Diana nor the princes knew it would be their last conversation.
William also said of the call: “Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know, ‘see you later’.”