The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki slipped into a swimsuit as she filmed scenes of Princess Diana’s Mediterranean cruise with Dodi Al Fayed in 1997, which came just weeks before her tragic death.
The Australian actress, 32, looked stunning in a backless animal print halter-neck swimsuit as she filmed scenes for the sixth season of the Netflix drama on a replica of yacht Jonikal, owned by Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed.
She embodied the late Princess of Wales she recreated one of Diana’s very recognisable holiday looks from when she holidayed in St Tropez with Dodi back in July 1997.
The Crown are recreating the holiday when sailed from the South of France to Sardinia with her two sons and Dodi weeks before she was killed in a car crash in Paris.
In character: The Crown’s Elizabeth Debicki (left) slipped into a swimsuit as she filmed scenes of Princess Diana’s Mediterranean cruise with Dodi Al Fayed in 1997, which came just weeks before her tragic death
Beachwear: The Australian actress, 32, looked stunning in a backless animal print halter-neck swimsuit as she filmed scenes for the sixth season of the Netflix drama on a replica of yacht Jonikal, owned by Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed
Elizabeth is set to make her debut as Princess Diana in the upcoming fifth season of The Crown, which is set for release on November 9, and the programme has already courted controversy with producers slammed over its which will include Diana’s now-infamous 1995 interview on Panorama.
In the latest filming pictures, taken on October 19, Elizabeth was a dead ringer for the royal as she sported the animal print swimsuit while lounging on the luxurious yacht with Khalid Abdalla, who plays Diana’s lover Dodi.
She shielded her eyes with a pair of oval sunglasses as she was joined by the crew on a smaller boat as they travelled out to a replica of Fayed’s famous lavish liner.
Her co-stars Rufus Kampa, who is playing a young Prince William, and Will Powell who stars as Prince Harry, did not appear to be present during the scenes.
Spitting image: She embodied the late Princess of Wales she recreated one of Diana’s very recognisable holiday looks from when she sailed from the South of France to Sardinia with her two sons and Dodi weeks before she was killed in Paris
Yacht Titania is set to act as a stand-in for Fayed’s yacht Jonikal during both the fifth and sixth seasons of The Crown.
In May 2020, Omar’s father’s yacht – which had hosted the royals and Dodi – was sold for £171,000, with some observers telling The Sunday Express that the bid was surprisingly low, sparking fears that the memory of Diana was ‘fading’.
Royal author Margaret Holder, who penned Diana: The Caring Princess, a look at the Princess of Wales’ life published in 1999, said she felt it was: ‘a shame that this historic boat didn’t attract a higher bid as a remarkable souvenir of the last days of Diana’s life.’
The boat was used by Dodi as the venue for lavish parties in the South of France, mainly in St Tropez.
Recognisable look: In the latest filming pictures, taken on October 19, Elizabeth was a dead ringer for the royal as she sported the animal print swimsuit while lounging on the luxurious yacht
Star: Elizabeth is set to make her debut as Princess Diana in the upcoming fifth season of The Crown, which is set for release on November 9
Relaxing: Elizabeth shielded her eyes with a pair of oval sunglasses as she was joined by the crew on a smaller boat as they travelled out to a replica of Fayed’s famous lavish liner
Fashion: At one point, Elizabeth was seen with a bright blue sarong around her waist as she was joined by the crew on a boat
While he is not believed to feature in The Crown, Dodi’s half-brother Omar Fayed previously spoke about his memories of holidaying with the Diana, her sons and Dodi.
Although he was just nine years old at the time of the trip, he recalled that spending time with Diana and her sons was ‘delightful’ and the period surrounding their relationship had ‘lovely family vibes’.
In an interview with Tatler last year, Omar said: ‘I met Princess Diana a few times and Princes William and Harry. They came to my dad’s house, too, and were super delightful.
‘There were so many stories that came out of that period, but for the people who were in it, it was lovely family vibes.’
Solo: Her co-stars Khalid Abdalla, who plays Diana’s lover Dodi, Rufus Kampa, who is playing a young Prince William, and Will Powell who stars as Prince Harry, did not appear to be present during the scenes
All aboard: Elizabeth was seen climbing in between two boats as she was seen getting ready for filming the holiday scenes with the crew
Helping hand: Elizabeth was assisted with climbing from one yacht to another boat as they shot the famous St Tropez scenes
Netflix, which spends £11.5 million per episode on the show, which is one of its biggest global hits, is about to launch series five on November 9.
It will cover the years from 1991 to 1997, and will include details of Diana’s Panorama interview in 1995.
King Charles, played by Dominic West, is the dominant figure in the drama. He is shown lobbying Prime Minister John Major in a bizarre attempt to force his mother’s abdication.
It also depicts Charles bitterly arguing with Diana as their divorce looms, and romancing Camilla, now Queen Consort, including a dramatisation of the notorious ‘tampongate’ phone call.
All smiles: Elizabeth placed a hand on her co-star’s shoulder as they docked on a smaller boat, which they used to travel out to the yacht
The fifth series of The Crown, which will cover the years leading up to Princess Diana’s 1995 Panorama interview, has already sparked anger before its release.
A production source said that media outrage over inaccuracies – and the lack of sensitivity in airing the series so close to the death of the Queen – is ‘spooking’ the broadcaster.
The source said: ‘The show has never been about sensationalism but it has also always been a drama. For the first years it seemed that everyone was happy to tolerate it.’
But the source said writer Peter Morgan had become increasingly ‘uncomfortable’ as the series of The Crown edged closer to the present day.
Big scenes: Elizabeth was accompanied by a vast crew as they filmed the yacht scenes, which came weeks before Princess Diana’s death in Paris
They said: ‘The truth is that it was easier to write the earlier series because, firstly, there is a wealth of historical documentation, plus a consensus over more of what happened, and you can be more broad brush dramatically and people don’t find it hurtful.
‘Peter is always trying to get to the truth. There is always reams and reams of research.
‘However, people are more loose-lipped about Princess Margaret 50 years ago than John Major in 1991.
‘Peter is very aware of all of it and it is a struggle. He insisted on announcing that series five would be the last, even though Netflix didn’t want to announce it. It didn’t want to kill the golden goose.
Lavish boat: Yacht Titania is set to act as a stand-in for Fayed’s yacht Jonikal during both the fifth and sixth seasons of The Crown
‘Then, a few months, later he had changed his mind and he said that he was writing series six. But this will be it. He won’t go any further towards the present day. It’s already uncomfortable enough.’
Acting royalty Dame Judi Dench, who is close to King Charles and Camilla, accused the programme of being ‘crude and hurtful’.
Dame Judi, 87, who has played Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, told The Times the series risked damaging the monarchy. The Oscar-winning actress blamed it for ‘crude sensationalism’ and blurring fact and fiction.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Major criticised a scene which shows him having a conversation with then Prince Charles about the possibility of the Queen abdicating as ‘malicious nonsense’.
Amid growing controversy about the way The Crown blurs reality and fiction, Netflix recently updated its description of the series to add a disclaimer to its trailer on YouTube which says it is a ‘fictional dramatisation’.
Series six will show moped-riding paparazzi photographers swarming Princess Diana‘s car in the lead-up to the crash that killed her in Paris.
Netflix previously said the ‘exact moment’ of the crash will not feature in the controversial drama as filming for series six is well-underway.
The paparazzi infamously pursued the car being driven by drunk driver Henri Paul as it carried Diana and her lover Dodi Al Fayed away from the Ritz hotel in Paris.
Some then took pictures as Diana, Dodi and Paul lay gravely injured in the wrecked Mercedes after the crash.
Critics recently slammed the ‘insensitivity’ of Netflix amid outrage over the show’s disregard for historical truth.
Speaking to MailOnline, royal biographer Andrew Lownie said the depiction of the minutes before Diana’s death is ‘distasteful’, adding that ‘a bit of sensitivity would not go amiss’. He said the show’s makers could face accusations of ‘insensitivity’ over the filming in Paris.
Mr Lownie, the author of biographies of King Edward VIII and Lord Mountbatten and his wife, said of filming images in Paris: ‘I agree it is distasteful [to recreate the scenes].
‘It is such an important part of the story and they have got to show it, but a bit of sensitivity would not go amiss.
‘There are lots of ways filmmakers can show something without showing it, shall we say.’
He added: It could all be off screen. It doesn’t need to be so graphic. We have had documentaries even showing pictures of the bodies in the car. In some ways people have gone further.
‘They will say this is drama, documentaries have been more blatant, so what is the fuss.’
His comments come after Debbie Frank, who was Diana’s astrologer, said it would be ‘terrible’ for Princes William and Harry to see a recreation of the moments leading up to their mother’s death.
‘It’s obviously terrible for Diana’s children to have to see that again. It’s insensitive,’ she said.
She added: ‘I feel Diana’s death and the crash was the biggest shock of our generation. It had such a huge impact across the national psyche.
‘I guess the makers of The Crown feel they are entitled to show a re-enactment of scenes leading up to her death and that it has dramatic impact. But relatives would think otherwise.’
Miss Frank, who knew Diana from 1989 until her death, also questioned if this was the right time for a dramatization of Diana’s death so soon after the Queen’s death.
Royal biographer Angela Levin said: ‘I think they’re appalling, it’s so callous and particularly for William and Harry.
‘It’s terrible, it’s reliving something that happened a long time ago and is still in people’s minds and making them have all those feelings again.
‘You can do a dramatisation of events, but there is a limit – and I think this is going over the limit. It’s not necessary. I feel very sorry for the Royal Family.
‘It’s very hurtful for them, and everyone who knew Diana. She was adored around the world and it will bring a lot of people a lot of unhappiness.’
The Crown has been a huge hit for Netflix. Each episode now costs around £11.5million.
There are no depths of bad taste The Crown does not plumb: Netflix series portrays Charles, Philip and The Queen with disdain bordering on mockery while William is seen as slightly dim and sulky and Harry is let off lightly, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
There are no depths of bad taste that writer Peter Morgan does not plumb in the new ten-part series of The Crown on Netflix.
Divorces, infidelities, the most intimate conversations, the infamous interview with Princess Diana and Martin Bashir, even the death of a five-year-old from cancer – all are exploited for lurid drama.
As the eight-and-a-half hours of new film were made available to journalists last night, under a stringent embargo, the sheer virulence of the storylines became shockingly clear.
Charles, Philip and at times the Queen herself are portrayed with disdain bordering on mockery. A teenage Prince William is also shown in an unflattering light, as slightly dim and sulky, though his younger brother Harry is let off lightly and barely features.
Netflix may well find that, with the international grief and mourning that marked the death of the Queen less than two months ago, viewers’ appetite for royal muck-raking has disappeared.
Insiders at the streaming giant say the mood in the company is already uneasy, with some American executives surprised by the backlash from fans who fear the death of the Princess of Wales will be re-enacted in graphic detail.
Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales from season five of The Crown, which will air next week
Bashir is shown meeting Diana in a dimly lit car park and feeding lies to her, urging her to trust no one
Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales, Dominic West as Charles, Teddy Hawley as Prince Harry and Timothee Sambor as Prince William, from season five of The Crown
Divorces, infidelities, the most intimate conversations, the infamous interview with Princess Diana and Martin Bashir, even the death of a five-year-old from cancer – all are exploited for lurid drama. Pictured: The recreation from the series
Olivia Williams as Camilla and Dominic West as Charles, from season five of The Crown
Diana pictured during her Panorama interview with Martin Bashir for the BBC in November 1995
A teenage Prince William is also shown in an unflattering light, as slightly dim and sulky, though his younger brother Harry is let off lightly and barely features
This series stops short of that moment. It ends with Diana, divorced from Charles, preparing for a Mediterranean holiday with her friend Dodi Fayed.
Full reviews, with assessments of individual performances and an analysis of how far the script strays from historical fact, are embargoed until Saturday morning.
But no spoiler alert is needed when I say that this series of The Crown is unrecognisable in its tone, compared to the original series in 2016.
This show with its almost unlimited budget and all-star cast has become a monstrous perversion of itself.
At the beginning, The Crown charted the affectionate romance of the Princess Elizabeth and her prince, the Duke of Edinburgh, played with touching vulnerability by Claire Foy and Matt Smith.
But it has descended into scandal-mongering, intent on inflicting every possible embarrassment on the Royal Family.
The Crown is now a nakedly republican polemic, using embarrassment as its chief weapon against the monarchy.
Chief victim is the monarch himself. Perhaps Morgan and his Netflix paymasters imagined, like most of us, that the Queen would survive, ruling above reproach, for a number of years to come – and that the former Prince of Wales was fair game.
Certainly, none of the preview episodes (labelled, it ought to be said, as ‘work in progress’) carried an acknowledgment of Her Majesty’s death. Any viewers expecting a respectful caption, saluting her 70 years on the throne, will be disappointed.
But from the outset, the campaign against Charles is lacerating. In scene after scene, he is depicted as devious, impatient, resentful, devoid of self-awareness in his desperation to be king.
How Prince Harry, who professes hatred of any media exploitation of his mother’s memory or intrusion into his own life, can continue to be associated with Netflix defies belief
When the interview airs, long sections of it are restaged, despite Prince William’s insistence that it should never be aired because it harmed his mother so much
Insiders at the streaming giant say the mood in the company is already uneasy, with some American executives surprised by the backlash
This prince is a plotter whose mind works constantly, even during holidays with friends, on ways to dislodge his mother and force her aside. His aides talk of little else.
Despite the fact that former Prime Minister John Major has categorically dismissed this picture as nonsense, Charles is seen making a pathetic fool of himself as he tries to recruit the Tory PM into his treacherous schemes.
Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles – now the King and Queen Consort, a fact shamefully ignored by Netflix – suffer greater indignity still, with the replay of that excruciating phonecall.
Dominic West as Charles and Olivia Williams as Camilla, then his married mistress, re-enact every word of it… including that awful extended metaphor about being reincarnated as a tampon.
It is performed without mercy, and to emphasise the humiliation we see the reaction of other royals when the transcript is published. Princess Margaret reads it in bed. Diana holds her head in her hands.
But even this is overshadowed by Netflix’s relish for the way the Princess of Wales was tricked into a damaging TV interview by Martin Bashir of the BBC.
The affair is spread across two episodes, as Bashir is shown meeting Diana in a dimly lit car park and feeding lies to her, urging her to trust no one, at a time when her mental health was at its most fragile.
When the interview airs, long sections of it are restaged, despite Prince William’s insistence that it should never be aired because it harmed his mother so much.
We hear Elizabeth Debicki, as Diana, discussing her post-natal depression after William was born, her conviction that allegations that she was ‘crazy’ were used to discredit her, her fears for her children and her belief that Charles would never be king.
Some of these lines are spoken as we watch other members of the Royal Family – either glued to their TV sets or pointedly ignoring the broadcast. Charles reacts with rage, shouting: ‘What the hell is she doing?’
Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales appearing in the fifth season of the streaming website’s show, The Crown
The infamous interview is spread across two episodes, as Bashir (pictured) is shown meeting Diana in a dimly lit car park and feeding lies to her
Prince William (played by Senan West, Dominic’s son) is seen at Eton: a teacher asks if he is all right, and the boy, then 13, says, ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ before getting up and walking away.
But the camera is trained on Diana’s face as she murmurs the most famous line from the interview: ‘Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.’
Equally callous is the decision by Morgan to include the death of Leonora Knatchbull, granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten, who was just five when she died from kidney cancer in 1991.
We see her in the first ten minutes of episode one, as Charles and the girl’s father, his friend Norton, admire the child’s curly hair and discuss her treatment.
In the second episode, Prince Philip (Jonathan Pryce) visits Leonora’s grave with her mother, Penny. Both Norton and Penny are still alive, and friends say they are distressed at the thought of their child’s death being presented on screen.
Their feelings, and those of all the Royal Family, are ignored. Netflix and Peter Morgan treat them with cold-blooded contempt. Rarely has a drama been more cruel.
How Prince Harry – who professes hatred of any media exploitation of his mother’s memory or intrusion into his own life – can continue to be associated with Netflix defies belief.
His own media company, Archewell Productions, has signed a deal with Netflix worth a rumoured $100 million (£86.7million). That will have to be a matter between Harry and his conscience.
