‘The Crown’ blasted for being pro-King Charles/Camilla: “She’s the villain”

Creators of Netflix‘s hit royal drama series The Crown have been criticized online for being too pro-King Charles and Queen Camilla in the latest season, prompting a prominent royal commentator to describe the former Mrs. Parker Bowles as “the villain” when it came to the marriage of Charles and Princess Diana.

Kristen Meinzer, royal expert and co-host of Newsweek’s The Royal Report podcast, told chief royal correspondent Jack Royston and guest star H. Alan Scott that actress Olivia Williams’ performance was “sympathetic” to Camilla in Season 5.

“I would say Olivia Williams in my opinion is trying to play Camilla in a very sympathetic way, where it’s, you know ‘why are they parked outside my house with their cameras? Why are they turning me into the villain?'” she said.

“You know, she seems quite put upon in this even though, let’s be real, she’s the villain in real life, right? Or one of the villains.”

Meinzer is not the only viewer to have picked up on the portrayal of Camilla and Charles as gentle. Pop culture commentator and host of the Sexy Unique Podcast, Carey O’Donnell took to Twitter to voice his confusion over the depiction, saying:

“The pro-Charles/Camilla propaganda in this season of The Crown is truly weird.”

Another Twitter user @Mihrimah_FS took to the platform to voice their dislike of the dramatization, writing: “Honestly this series is more sympathetic to Charles and Camilla than Diana I don’t like that #TheCrown”

Public resentment towards the new queen consort for her part in contributing to the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage still manifests online today, compounded by the recreation in The Crown of the couple’s official separation and the princess’ contentious 1995 BBC Panorama interview.

It was during this interview that Diana, when asked if Mrs. Parker Bowles had played a significant role in the breakdown of her marriage, delivered the famous line: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”

Despite the season’s release causing considerable controversy in Britain over calls for disclaimers telling viewers that the events portrayed are not 100 percent true to life, the show has strong links to the facts on which it is based.

An example of this, Royston told Meinzer, came in the portrayal of Camilla being shadowed by photographers outside her home.

“That’s another one that’s out of real life,” he said. “This is one of the things that Diana said, [that] Camilla is moaning to Charles that she’s got six photographers outside of her house and Charles is falling over himself with how sympathetic he is, and I’ve got 30 outside mine and he doesn’t seem to care.”

In this, he adds, it may be that the show is portraying Camilla, in many ways, through the eyes of Charles and his sympathies towards her.

“That sympathetic portrayal that she’s giving, I guess—to play devil’s advocate—you could argue is trying to reflect showing the sympathy that Charles had for her.”

In spite of criticism, Scott pointed out that the new queen consort does have support of the public as she has slowly taken prominence on the world stage following the death of Diana in 1997.

“I think history has been more sympathetic on Camilla,” he said.

“We’ve become more sympathetic I think for Camilla’s situation as time has gone by and we’ve been able to learn more about the relationship and about them.”

In 2022, after 17 years of marriage to Charles and service to Britain and the Crown as a working royal, Camilla was given the ultimate seal of approval by Queen Elizabeth II when she announced that it was her “sincere wish” that the then-Duchess of Cornwall be known as “Queen Consort” when Charles became king.

This decision undid an earlier statement made in 2005 at the time of Charles and Camilla’s wedding, when public animosity towards Camilla was greater than it is today, that she would never be queen but “Princess Consort” instead.

On the royal’s popularity today, Royston told Scott:

“Her ratings have historically been quite low. After the queen made that announcement, she did have a bit of a swing in her favor and she probably has had another one since she became queen consort, but whether that proves to be lasting or not we probably won’t know for about a year… For polling, it’s really important to look at the long-term picture because there are always swings up and down and you never know whether it’s going to be a lasting decision or not.”

According to YouGov, as of Q3 for 2022, Camilla was the sixth most popular British royal behind the late queen, Prince William and Kate Middleton, King Charles, and Princess Anne. The queen consort is “liked” by 44 percent of Britons and “disliked” by 26 percent.

Season 5 of The Crown is available to stream now on Netflix.

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