SPOILER ALERT: This information story options particulars from Season 6 of The Crown
EXCLUSIVE: Netflix sequence The Crown has been accused of fabricating Mohamed Al-Fayed’s function in taking part in 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 within the sun-soaked environment of the Mediterranean.
Peter Morgan‘s lavish royal drama repeatedly implies that the connection was engineered by Al-Fayed, the late Egyptian enterprise mogul, as a part of his ambition to acquire British citizenship.
This allegation was refuted in 1997 and Michael Cole, Al-Fayed’s former spokesperson, has gone on document once more to disclaim that his ex-boss was concerned in Diana and Dodi’s fateful romance.
Cole advised Deadline that he by no means witnessed or had data of Al-Fayed engineering the connection, or taking part in a job in making the tryst recognized to all the world by commissioning images 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 mentioned.
The opening episode of the ultimate season of The Crown options Al-Fayed (Salim Dau) re-introducing Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) on his yacht, Jonikal.
Al-Fayed did certainly invite Diana and her sons, Princes William and Harry, to his St. Tropez villa in the summertime of 1997 and it was reported on the time that Dodi joined them on Jonikal.
But the boat supplies a precinct for The Crown author Morgan to use some artistic license, based on 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” and {that a} relationship between the 2 would “finally make me proud of you.”
In Episode 2, Al-Fayed orders a maid on his yacht to inform him if Dodi and Diana are “intimate.” After being knowledgeable that they’re sharing a mattress, the Netflix drama means that Al-Fayed commissioned Italian photographer Mario Brenna to take the well-known images of Diana and Dodi in a personal clinch on Jonikal.
“How do I find a good paparazzi photographer,” Dau’s Al-Fayed asks his assistant. “Not just any idiot with a long lens. I want the best photographer on the Mediterranean.”
In actuality, there are conflicting accounts about how Brenna managed to snap the pictures, from which he reportedly earned $5M.
Last yr, British journalist Tina Brown wrote in her e book, The Palace Papers, that Diana herself tipped off Brenna to “send a taunting message” to her lover Hasnat Khan.
In 1997, The Independent newspaper reported that Brenna occurred to identify Al-Fayed’s boat off the coast of Sardinia as he was within the space on different assignments.
Cole mentioned the suggestion of Al-Fayed’s involvement within the relationship was “total nonsense.” He added: “Mohamed was a remarkable man in many ways. He was delighted that his eldest son and his family’s dear friend Diana were together. But making two people fall in love with each other? That was beyond even his great talents.”
Al-Fayed died in August on the age of 94. Cole mentioned he suspects that his former boss, who was recognized for talking his thoughts, would have had “quite a lot to say” about The Crown‘s model of occasions.
Diana and Dodi died in a automobile accident weeks after romance blossomed between the duo. The crash is depicted off-camera within the opening moments of The Crown’s first Season 6 episode.
Netflix had no remark.