The Crown will deal a fresh blow to William and Harry with overblown dramatisation of last phone call with Princess Diana – despite brothers insisting it was a ‘short and rushed’ chat

The final series of Netflix‘s royal drama The Crown will depict the last time Prince William and Prince Harry spoke to their mother – but it will not be a true reflection of the conversation.

The first instalment of series 6 will cover the final weeks of Princess Diana‘s life before the fatal car crash with Dodi Fayed in August 31, 1997 at the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, but as a fictionalised version of events, viewers can expect to see some embellishment of the facts.

In epsisode four of the final series, the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is depicted as frustrated while in Paris with Dodi Fayed, and desperate to return to the UK to see her sons. 

After missing one opportunity to speak with them on the phone, Diana finally manages to have a call with Prince William and Prince Harry, in which they have a heartfelt exchange.

However, according to Prince Harry and Prince William’s accounts of the last phone call he ever had with his mother, this version of events does not quite ring true.

Series six of The Crown will depict the final phone call Princess Diana shared with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry before she died

In the episode, Diana calls Balmoral, where her sons are on holiday with their father.

During the phone call, William asks his mother if she’s going to marry Dodi Fayed, to which Diana says she is not.

He then explains all the newspapers in the UK are reporting that the pair are engaged.

Diana replies: ‘I am emphatically not going to marry Dodi. To be honest, I cant wait to come home.’

Prince William and Prince Harry have only spoken once about their final phone call with their mother – and can’t remember much of what was said

William then asks his mother if she is ok. She nods and says: ‘I’m ok. Its just a bit mad here. I don’t really understand how I ended up here. Mummy just needs to make some changes to her life, thats all. But that’s not your problem – thats mine.’

In a tender moment, she tells her sons she loves them and they reply to say they love her too. She promises to return home the following evening to see them.

Later in the episode, Diana comes to her untimely death in the car accident. 

Although it is true that Prince William and Prince Harry shared a phone call with their mother on the last day she was alive, their recollections of the call do not reflect the Netflix series’ depiction.

Speaking in a 2017 documentary Diana: Our Mother, the Princes discussed for the first time the details of their ‘desperately rushed’ final call with the late royal.

Recalling the chat, they expressed their regret that they were desperate to go back outside and play with their cousins, who were also at Balmoral.

Harry said: ‘I can’t really, necessarily, remember what I said. But all I do remember is probably, you know, regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was.

‘And if I’d known that was the last time I was going to speak to my mother – the things I would have said to her.’

The fact that Harry, who was 12 at the time of his mother’s death, cannot remember the details of his final conversation with Diana suggests it was not a chat where deep feelings were expressed – rather, an ordinary discussion because neither Diana nor the princes knew it would be their final conversation.

William also said of the call: ‘Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know, ‘see you later’.’