‘The Crown’ Viewers Harass Prince Charles And Camilla Parker Bowles, Sparking Dramatic Response

The fourth season of The Crown doesn’t exactly portray Prince Charles or his marriage to Princess Diana in a good light. Nor does it treat the Duke of Cornwall’s wife, Camilla Parker Bowles very well either. Now, due to the endless amount of trolling and harsh attacks on Twitter, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall’s official Twitter account, @clarencehouse, has shut down most comments from even being viewed by other Twitter users. Now, when users look at the feed, they are greeted with a disclaimer reading,

People @ClarenceHouse follows and everyone mentioned in the conversation can reply.

The Palace Shut It Down

As confirmed by People, the official account has closed comments from anyone not following the account or mentioned directly in the conversation. While the reason was vague, it seems it’s because of constant harassment by fans of Netflix’s hit The Crown, according to the report. The fourth season of the show focuses greatly on the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and while Josh O’Connor’s performance as the heir-apparent has been praised by critics, the historical accuracy of the show has come under fire. Still, it’s forced drastic action, according to People, which wrote,

The palace confirmed that they restricted comments after some recent replies broke the Royal Household’s social media guidelines, which do not permit the posting of abusive comments.

Why There’s Backlash Against Prince Charles

Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage was a rocky one, no question. Prince Charles was notoriously carrying on an affair with Parker Bowles, while Princess Diana had affairs of her own. On the show, the focus is much more on Prince Charles’ affair than Princess Diana’s. The show also heavily implies that Prince Charles was a mean, uncaring, thoughtless, and angry husband towards the Princess of Wales. It seems this has sparked outrage among fans of the show, and many have turned to Twitter to criticize both Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

screenshot of The Crown with Prince Charles and Princess Diana — (Netflix)

How Accurate Is The Show?

According to many “in the know,” The Crown is not very historically accurate. This has prompted calls by some in the United Kingdom to demand Netflix place a disclaimer at the beginning of each show regarding its accuracy or lack thereof. One historian wrote of at least eight fabrications in the fourth season alone, some as mundane as what Queen Elizabeth was wearing at a given event to the more serious charge that the queen repeatedly mocked or undermined Margaret Thatcher.

It seems people do believe a lot of it, and that has had real-world consequences. Interestingly, the troll comments are still coming fast and furious on the Clarence House’s official Instagram page, though that could change too. The tabloids are famous for trashing Camilla Parker Bowles, and though she is wildly more popular today in the United Kingdom than 15 years ago when she married Prince Charles, she obviously still has her detractors.