According to royal biographers, Prince Philip was “very upset” by “shockingly malicious” scenes about him in the TV series “The Crown”.
Philip – who died at the age of 99 on Friday – was upset when he heard the royal show introduce him as a master of ceremonies who also once threatened daughter-in-law Princess Diana, royal experts told the Mail on Sunday.
However, the “most horrific” scene was one in which his father accused him of being angry about the death of his sister during a plane crash, biographer Sally Bedell Smith told the British newspaper.
The episode suggested that Philip would go to Germany in 1937 to visit his sister, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, but was banned after he got into trouble at school.
His sister decided to fly to the UK to see him, but her plane crashed and killed her, her husband, their two sons and an unborn baby boy, as well as her mother-in-law, according to the episode report .
Philip’s father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, confronted his son during the funeral and told him, ‘You are the reason we are all here and burying my favorite child.’
Bedell Smith – who has published a bestselling biography of the Queen – said Philip ‘had nothing to do with his sister’s death’, which never caused a rift with his father.
“Cecilie dies in a plane crash … that’s the only thing that was true,” she told the British newspaper. “All the other things were invented in a shockingly malicious way.”
While Philip and Queen Elizabeth II both refused to watch the controversial show, the Duke of Edinburgh was told of the storyline – which was “very upsetting to him”, Bedell Smith said.
Netflix “must emphatically apologize,” the biographer said.
“And I think an indemnity is needed more than ever,” she insisted on earlier calls for the show to warn viewers that it was a drama rather than a historically accurate narrative.
“Now that he’s gone, he’s even more relieved about what they did to his reputation,” she said.
Another royal biographer, Hugo Vickers, also insisted that Philip was ‘very upset’ about the program.
“How shameful it was to turn Prince Philip into a cartoonist and never do work in the series,” he told the British newspaper.
‘The portrayal was cruel and deeply unfair. The least Netflix could do was warn viewers with an disclaimer. ‘
Producers of “The Crown” said on Friday that they were “deeply saddened” by the news of Philip’s death and said: “We are thinking of the royal family at this sad time.”
Actors Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies, who both played Philip tributes posted to the late prince.
However, the Mail on Sunday did not respond that Netflix and the show’s creator, Peter Morgan, did not ask if they apologized for Philip’s rendition.