The Crown’s portrayal of Diana is disrespectful, says Khan

JEMIMA KHAN has said she has withdrawn her support for The Crown, over its “disrespectful” depiction of the last years of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The former journalist, who has reportedly fallen out with the series’s creator, Peter Morgan, who asked her to be a co-writer for the scripts, said she asked for all her contributions to be removed. Ms Khan was a close friend of Diana in the years before her death in a car crash in Paris, and reportedly worked on outlines of scripts including her relationships with Dodi Fayed and her Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.

She said Morgan, a long-time friend who has written films including The Queen and Frost/Nixon, invited her to contribute in 2019.

She told The Sunday Times that despite never speaking publicly about her involvement, she felt that Diana’s life would not be told as “respectfully or compassionately” as she had hoped.

She added: “We worked together on the outline and scripts from September 2020 until February 2021.

“When our co-writing agreement was not honoured, and when I realised that particular storyline would not necessarily be told fs respectfully or compassionately as I had hoped,

“I requested that all my contributions be removed from the series and I declined a credit.”

A spokesman for The Crown told The Sunday Times: “Jemima Khan has been a friend, fan and a vocal public supporter of The Crown since season one. She has been part of a wide network of sources who have provided extensive background information to our writers and research team, providing context for the drama. She has never been contracted as a writer on the series.”