King Charles, Diana drama on ‘The Crown’ defended: 'Sensationalism sells!'

Netflix’s upcoming season for its hit royal drama The Crown has attracted much backlash for dramatizing the breakdown of King Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage, however, a royal expert has defended the move saying that it’s what the viewers want.

Talking to Newsweek about the controversy around the show, season 5 of which will focus on the Charles and Diana’s separation and divorce and extra marital affairs, Mark Boardman of MarkMeets said that The Crown dramatizing royal family events made sense because ‘sensational sells’.

“The show is filed under fiction, and we know how dramatized these shows can be with avid viewers still finding the line between fact and fiction somewhat blurred,” Boardman noted, before explaining his stance further.

“In my opinion as someone who has met and seen the royals up-close on a number of occasions in a press capacity, I feel a number of scenes in the depiction of the British royal family are unnecessary (affairs and private meetings), but they are integral to understanding the facts and the story, and ultimately what us viewers expect to see is a fair reflection of events,” he said.

“There is fan demand to cover the most spoken about events surrounding the royal family from affairs, and the need to recreate scenes including Diana's death which will no doubt be incredibly hard for William and Harry following her passing,” Boardman explained.

He then added, “Princess Diana was such a loved and cherished person in the hearts of the British public, and to this day many conspiracies still exist. Sensationalism sells!”