Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are not happy with The Crown season 4's release on Netflix for many reasons. Their biggest gripe isn't in how they were depicted in the series but in how the show has affected their current royal work.
The Crown season 4 came out on the streaming platform just as Prince Charles and Camilla were in Berlin, Germany, for a working trip. It was the first visit overseas for the royal couple, who had to isolate and scale down their duties for months because of the pandemic lockdowns.
Royal commentator Omid Scobie said in his podcast show that he felt bad for Prince Charles and Camilla because their travel to Berlin was "overshadowed" by the controversy of The Crown. What was a significant trip, where Prince Charles addressed the German Parliament, and the couple also attended Germany's Remembrance Day ceremony, was reduced to merely a footnote because people were more curious about Prince Charles and Camilla's affair.
Royal correspondent Maggie Rulli agreed with Scobie's observation and described the situation as a "bad twist of fate." The ones who overshadowed Prince Charles and Camilla were the TV versions of themselves.
The Crown season 4 unpacked the infidelity of Prince Charles towards his first wife, Princess Diana, when he had an extra-marital relationship with Camilla. These events happened in real life over 25 or 30 years ago, but the Netflix series embellished some of the drama scenes.
As a result, few people have talked about Prince Charles and Camilla's actual work in Germany because many were too preoccupied with rehashing their adulterous relationship. Friends and supporters of the couple said that the show was unfair to the couple, who have been diligent with their public duties since they legally married in 2005.
Scobie and Rulli also discussed that the royal family could not likely stomach how the latest season of The Crown plays out. It will still get worst since the show will still have a fifth and sixth season.
The next episodes of The Crown will tackle the mid-1990s until, most likely, the first decade of the new millennium. As the show gets closer and closer to the present day, some viewers will find it harder to separate reality from fiction.
Two weeks after The Crown season 4's release, Prince Charles and Camilla had to turn off the comments section on their social media profiles as haters trolled their posts. The Crown creator Peter Morgan insisted that the scenes in the series are his imaginative creations, but the debate rages on about Prince Charles and Camilla's reputation, especially when they will become the future King and Queen Consort of England.
