‘The Crown’ Accused Of Fabricating Genesis Of Princess Diana & Dodi Fayed’s Fateful Romance
16.11.2023 - 11:57
/ deadline.com
SPOILER ALERT: This news story features details from Season 6 of The Crown
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix series The Crown has been accused of fabricating Mohamed Al-Fayed’s role in playing matchmaker to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.
Season 6 has dropped on Netflix and the opening episodes chronicle the burgeoning romance between Diana and Dodi in the sun-soaked surroundings of the Mediterranean.
Peter Morgan‘s lavish royal drama repeatedly implies that the relationship was engineered by Al-Fayed, the late Egyptian business mogul, as part of his ambition to obtain British citizenship.
This allegation was refuted in 1997 and Michael Cole, Al-Fayed’s former spokesperson, has gone on record again to deny that his ex-boss was involved in Diana and Dodi’s fateful romance.
Cole told Deadline that he never witnessed or had knowledge of Al-Fayed engineering the relationship, or playing a role in making the tryst known to the entire world by commissioning photos of the couple.
“Netflix and the production company describe The Crown as ‘dramatized fiction’ and I am not going to disagree with that characterization. That means it is made up,” he said.
The opening episode of the final season of The Crown features Al-Fayed (Salim Dau) re-introducing Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) on his yacht, Jonikal.
Al-Fayed did indeed invite Diana and her sons, Princes William and Harry, to his St. Tropez villa in the summer of 1997 and it was reported at the time that Dodi joined them on Jonikal.
But the boat provides a precinct for The Crown writer Morgan to apply some creative license, according to Cole, Al-Fayed’s former press secretary.
In one scene, Al-Fayed instructs Dodi to woo Diana, saying that he has put “her on a plate”