The Crown season 5 begins in the 1990s with a focus on the increasingly tense marriage between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Prince Charles (Dominic West). As Diana struggles her place in the Royal Family, the second episode follows the Princess of Wales being tempted into telling her side of the story by a tabloid journalist called Andrew Morton (Andrew Steele).
She records taped interviews by proxy with her friend James Colthurst (Oliver Chris), which contain revelations about her battle with bulimia and her marriage to Prince Charles. The tapes were sent on to Morton who compiled them into her biography. At the time, her involvement in the book was kept a secret, but how much does this align with the real history?
Morton’s real book was published in July 1992 under the title 'Diana: Her True Story' and featured all of the same revelations as seen in the show. The book became a bestseller and was translated into 29 different languages.
Much of the story about how Morton researched the book is the same, including how he got in touch with Diana through Colthurst and how he received the tapes that she’d recorded in Kensington Palace.
"Turning on my tape recorder, I listened with mounting astonishment to the unmistakable voice of Princess Diana, pouring out a tale of woe in a rapid stream of consciousness," Morton recalled in a piece for the Daily Mail in August 2022. "She was talking about her unhappiness, her sense of betrayal, her suicide attempts – and two things I'd never previously heard of: an eating disorder called bulimia nervosa and a woman called Camilla."
When the book was published, Morton only admitted to speaking to Diana’s friends for the biography. However, after her death in 1997, he shared her true involvement in its creation when he republished the book under the title 'Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words'.
The new edition featured transcripts from Diana’s tapes and made it clear she was his main source in writing it. The move was met with criticism at the time, most notably by Mark Lawson in the Guardian. The author wrote of Morton: "He is guilty of a novel immorality in deciding that promises of confidentiality are not posthumous."
In the years since its release, Morton has gone on to become a royal commentator as well as authoring several unofficial biographies. Some of his most notable subjects include Tom Cruise, Monica Lewinsky, Madonna, and Meghan Markle.
He has also addressed his story being covered in The Crown's latest season. "They used me as a consultant for that period almost two years ago," he explained in a recent interview with Time Magazine.
"I would have a conference call with eight script writers, and they would ask quite detailed questions like, 'What was the color of your daughter’s wallpaper?' Because for a time I used her bedroom as an office. But they’ve kept their cards very close and didn’t involve me in the scriptwriting process. They just wanted the factual detail."
For more on acclaimed historical drama, check out our guides to The Crown season 5 guest cast, returning The Crown cast in season 5, The Crown season 5 cast vs. the real Royal Family, and how many episodes there are in The Crown season 5. And if you’ve already watched all 10 episodes, here’s our breakdown of The Crown season 5 ending and everything we know so far about The Crown season 6.
