The Crown, the Netflix epic that captures the drama of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, just wrapped its second season. Spanning from the mid-’50s to the mid-’60s, it touches on everything from the Suez Canal Crisis to the Kennedy assassination as well as the many clashes and complications within the royal family. But when a show blends fact, fathomable, and fiction (at a breakneck pace, while they’re at it), it’s easy to wonder: Wait, did that actually happen?
Below, your biggest questions, answered.
Did Prince Philip cheat on Queen Elizabeth?
Throughout the season, there are strong suggestions that Prince Philip cheats on Queen Elizabeth—but The Crown keeps it at just that, never showing any official impropriety.
That, it turns out, is pretty much in line with what actually happened. Unlike Charles and Camilla, who were caught red-handed, the press was never able to fully confirm Prince Philip’s affair. Instead, he’s faced decades’ worth of unsubstantiated rumors and allegations about trysts with different women.
So, there’s no definite answer to this one. On the one hand, where there’s smoke, there’s quite often fire. But, as Prince Philip did say on the matter: “How could I? I’ve had a detective in my company, night and day, since 1947.”
Did the Duke of Windsor really have associations with Nazis?
Yes, he did. “[Edward] was certainly sympathetic . . . even after the war he thought Hitler was a good fellow and that he’d done a good job in Germany, and he was also anti-Semitic, before, during, and after the war,” royal biographer Andrew Morton wrote in his book 17 Carnations: The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-Up in History.
He and Wallis Simpson also did go to Nazi Germany. In 1937, he actually went to visit Hitler, shook hands with him, and even raised his arm in a sort of Nazi-esque salute, Robert Lacey, a historian for The Crown, told Vogue. “His rationale was that it was trying to establish peace. But, [since he already abdicated] he had no government responsibilities to do that.”
What about the plot where Hitler would reinstall Edward as king? It did exist, but according to Vanity Fair, it wasn’t the purpose of the 1937 trip, like the show implies. The plan was hatched in 1940—three years after the visit (and it’s unknown whether Edward knew it existed).
Did Antony Armstrong-Jones regularly have a ménage à trois with married couple Jeremy and Camilla Fry (and get Camilla pregnant?)
Armstrong-Jones was indeed polyamorous, but whether or not he had threesomes with the Frys is unknown—nor is his sexual orientation: There were constant rumors he was bisexual, although, reportedly, he once said, “I didn’t fall in love with boys, but a few men have been in love with me.”
As for the pregnancy, that’s very real. Armstrong-Jones did have an illegitimate child with Camilla Fry, born three weeks after his wedding to Princess Margaret, confirmed by DNA test.
Did Jackie Kennedy really say all those things about Queen Elizabeth?
We go in depth on that here, but short answer: They did meet, but the comments haven’t been confirmed.
Did the Westminster Bells ring every minute for an hour after John F. Kennedy was assassinated?
According to Four Days in November: The Original Coverage of the John F. Kennedy Assassination, the tenor bell was rung every minute between 11:00 a.m. and noon, just as Queen Elizabeth ordered.
Was Prince Philip’s childhood as traumatic as the show suggests?
Mostly—but there’s a big embellishment when it comes to his sister, Cecilie, which you can read more about here.
