The Crown’s sixth and final season came to a dramatic conclusion on Thursday when the remaining six episodes landed on Netflix.
The series is known for dramatising the lives of the British Royal family decade by decade, and the final season is no different – spanning from 1997 to 2005.
The first four episodes covered 1997 when the late Princess of Wales began dating Dodi Al-Fayed, later delving into her tragic death and the public fallout of her passing.
The final six episodes, which were released on December 14th, document the years up to 2005 when Prince Charles married his now-wife Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The last episodes depict Prince William and King Charles’ strained relationship in the wake of Princess Diana’s death, and also heavily focuses on William’s relationship with Kate Middleton, whom he started dating after meeting at St. Andrews University.
The final instalments delve into Princess Margaret’s tragic final years too, and the inquest into Princess Diana’s death – which investigated Mohamed Al-Fayed’s claims that she was engaged and pregnant when she died.
While the final season of The Crown has received mixed reviews, with many calling out the creators for blurring the lines between fact and fiction, one scene is particular has ruffled a lot of feathers.
In episode 7, titled Alma Mater, a flashback takes viewers back to December 1996, months before Princess Diana’s death.
In the scene, Diana is seen selling The Big Issue magazine for charity alongside her son Prince William when a young Kate Middleton stumbles upon the pair while out Christmas shopping with her mother Carole.
Kate stops to buy an issue from Diana, and as she hands over the money, the Princess of Wales asks her for her name.
Diana then instructs William to “say thank you to Kate” as they share a fleeting glance.
Later, Kate is seen cutting out magazine photos of William to hang on her bedroom wall.
After doing some digging, it appears there is little to no truth behind this scene, as Kate sadly never got a chance to meet her late mother-in-law.
Following their royal wedding in 2011, William said he wished his new wife could have met his beloved mother.
Recalling their big day, he said in an interview: “It’s the one time since she’s died, where I’ve… thought to myself it would be fantastic if she was here, and just how sad really for her, more than anything, not being able to see it.
“I think, hopefully, she’d be very proud. I’m just very sad that she’s never going to get a chance to meet Kate.”
As for whether Kate fangirled over William before they started dating, this has long been a topic of debate.
In the book Kate: The Future Queen, royal biographer Katie Nicholl wrote how Kate’s former boarding school roommate Jessica Hay claimed that she had a big crush on William as a teengaer, and had posters of him in her room.
However, Kate later rubbished these rumours during her engagement interview with William in 2010.
When asked whether she had a picture of him on her wall as a teen, she replied: “He wishes! No. No, I had the Levi’s guy on my wall, not a picture of William. Sorry!”
William then joked: “Well, it was me in Levi’s, obviously!”
