What about that engagement?
Although The Crown is of course about real people and their stories, we cannot ignore the fact that the series sometimes plays away with the truth. Now that the first four episodes of the final season have been released, the big question is of course: what is actually true about this?
William the wombat
A very small detail – but in the series we see that Diana gives her son William (Rufus Kampa) a special pet name: wombat! It may not be an obvious nickname, so you might think this is a figment of the writers’ imagination.
Yet it turns out that this small detail is indeed correct! Speaking to NBC in 2007, he revealed that his mother did indeed like to call him “wombat.” “When I went to Australia with my parents – that’s where wombats live – I kept getting called that. Not because I look like a wombat – or maybe I do? I can’t get rid of that nickname now. That started when I was two,” he revealed at the time.
Verdict: fact!
What was it between Dodi Fayed and his ex?
If The Crown is to be believed, Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) lost his heart to a lady long before he met Diana (Elizabeth Debicki). Model Kelly Fisher (played in the series by Erin Richards) is even said to be engaged to the Harrods heir!
In the series we see how Dodi, under subtle pressure from his father, increasingly focuses on Diana and hopes to win the princess’s heart. And Kelly? He is left destitute. However, the American beauty does not give up for long, because she decides to sue her ex.
A quick dive into the archives shows that the exact story has never been confirmed from either side – but Kelly Fisher has always maintained that she was indeed engaged to Dodi Fayed. He allegedly urged her to put her modeling career on the back burner and move to Paris with him. According to Fisher, she discovered Dodi and Diana’s relationship at the same time as the rest of the world: when the Sunday Mirror published paparazzi photos of the couple. Painful….
Verdict: fact!
Did Dodi propose to Diana?
In The Crown we see how Dodi Fayed proposes to Diana just hours before their accident. With Julio Iglesias in the background, and a ring purchased in Monte Carlo, Dodi gets down on one knee. By the way, he doesn’t get the chance to actually ask the question before the princess intervenes – but his intentions are clear.
Once again, the precise truth here is not entirely clear. It is indeed true that the Dis Moi Oui ring was found in the couple’s Parisian hotel room afterwards. But almost all insiders agree: there was no question of an engagement between Diana and Dodi.
Almost all insiders, because: In the years after his son’s death, Dodi’s father steadfastly maintained that the two were engaged. Mohamed Al Fayed also claimed that Diana was pregnant with his grandchild – which has always been contradicted by medical and forensic experts. According to insiders, his claims about an engagement are nothing more than a wild fantasy. Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, wrote in his memoirs: “He must accept that the princess and Dodi had nothing more than a summer romance. The world must stop believing that Diana and Dodi would get married, because that is simply not true.”
Verdict: fiction!
Source: Hello! Magazine, Town & Country Magazine | Image: NL Image
