Prince Philip Allegedly Went to His ‘Lawyers’ About This ‘Disgraceful’ Scene From ‘The Crown’

The late Prince Philip was allegedly so upset about the royal family’s portrayal in Netflix’s The Crown that he reportedly tried to get his lawyers involved.

During the Tuesday, March 31, episode of the Daily Mail’s Palace Authorised series, longtime royal biographer Hugo Vickers claimed that a Season 1 plotline on the hit series — which dramatizes the life of royal figures like Philip and the late Queen Elizabeth II — got the former Duke of Edinburgh so upset that he was in a funk for a while.

According to the Daily Mail, the scene — which Vickers called “disgraceful” — concerned the tragic death of Philip’s sister, Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, in a 1937 plane crash at age 26.

Vickers, who details the royal family’s reaction to the “fundamentally dishonest” depiction of the monarchy in his new book, Queen Elizabeth II: A Personal History, said the show tried to make Philip seem guilty of something.

“They tried to blame Prince Philip for the death of his sister,” he explained. “They cooked up a scene at Gordonstoun [School], where he punches a boy. His half-term is cancelled. He doesn’t go to Darmstadt.”

Instead, Vickers said, “His sister flies over. She’s killed in a plane crash.” In the scene, “His father says, ‘It’s because of you, boy, that I’m burying my favorite child,’” Vickers added.

In reality, Vickers said, there was “no punch-up, there would have been no half-term. He wouldn’t have gone to Darmstadt. Yes, his sister did fly over and, in the fog, was killed.”

“Philip’s father actually came to take him over to the funeral with him,” Vickers said. “I knew Prince Philip was extremely upset by that. Luckily, I went on the Today Show, Radio 4, and told that story, and he was listening. He felt to some extent that it had been put right. But he did go to his lawyers about that.”

Vickers went on to criticize the show for being generally anti-monarchy. However, he stated that its propensity to play fast and loose with historical facts, while still having compelling writing and performances, makes it “dangerous.”

“Unfortunately, The Crown has become the accepted version of events, which is absolutely disgraceful,” he said.