By the beginning of episode two, Norton and Penelope\u2019s youngest daughter, Leonora, has tragically passed away from cancer (Leonora died in 1991 from a kidney tumour, and a charitable trust was established in her name). This prompts Prince Philip<\/a> (played by Jonathan Pryce) to pay his cousin Norton a visit, to check on his welfare. In the drama, Norton isn\u2019t home, and instead Philip spends time with Penelope. In the episode, the pair is depicted as having a close friendship; we see the Duke of Edinburgh arranging for the refurbishment of a carriage owned by Penelope and then taking her for a ride in it.<\/p> Later in the episode, he suggests to the Queen<\/a> (played by Imelda Staunton) that it\u2019s appropriate for husbands and wives to keep certain things private from one another. \u201cIf people were more considerate, more mature, more discreet\u2026 it can actually be the glue that binds it all together,\u201d he tells her.<\/p>\n \u201cSee, I think in a marriage one should aim to exist without secrets of accommodations,\u201d replies the Queen.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, that\u2019s because you are who you are,\u201d Philip says.<\/p>\n Although the drama stages this conversation in the context of a discussion about Prince Charles and Diana\u2019s marriage<\/a>, viewers might draw parallels that Philip is also talking about his relationship with Penelope Knatchbull \u2013 some media outlets have suggested that The Crown<\/em> is implying the evidence of an affair here.<\/p>\n In truth, what is known about their friendship is that both Penelope and her husband Norton have maintained an incredibly close bond with the British royal family over the years. Most significantly, after Prince Philip died on 9 April 2022 amidst Covid-19 restrictions, Penelope was one of 30 mourners in attendance at his funeral. She has been described as the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s \u201ckeeper of secrets\u201d by biographer Ingrid Seward.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is true that the pair became close and took part in carriage-riding competitions,\u201d writes historian Tracy Borman for <\/a>HistoryExtra.<\/em> \u201cBut any hint of a more intimate relationship between them is purely speculative.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNeither is there anything to suggest that the Queen\u2019s relationship with her husband grew more distant from the 1990s,\u201d says Borman. \u201cIn fact, the opposite seems to have been the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Another strand running through this episode is the situation of Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki), who has returned from her 1991 Italian holiday to a round of successful public engagements. She privately admits in the drama that her relationship with Charles is \u201cworse than ever\u201d \u2013 and is soon introduced to tabloid journalist Andrew Morton by her close friend James Colthurst. The latter soon becomes a go-between Diana and Morton. It soon becomes apparent that the journalist is writing a biography of her \u2013 whether she likes it or not.<\/p>\n Born in Ireland in 1957, James Colthurst was a close friend of Diana, and became the \u2018middleman\u2019 between the Princess of Wales and her biographer, Andrew Morton, in 1991\u20132. They had been friends since before Diana\u2019s marriage into the royal family, when she was still Lady Diana Spencer, working as a nanny in London. Described as a \u2018minor aristocrat\u2019, Colthurst was educated at Eton and came from a wealthy family.<\/p>\n Colthurst later spoke of how Diana was \u201cenormously enthusiastic\u201d to tell her story.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u201cHe\u2019s already started writing. He thinks there\u2019s another book coming about you that\u2019s likely to be a bit of a hatchet job based on sources close to the Prince of Wales,\u201d Colthurst tells Diana. \u201cMorton\u2019s view is that his version would at least give you some control.\u201d Though there was no \u2018hatchet job\u2019 on the immediate horizon in 1992, Prince Charles did cooperate with Jonathan Dimbleby on a 1994 biography which detailed in part how the prince had been forced into a loveless marriage with the Princess of Wales.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be responsible for starting a war,\u201d Diana tells Colthurst in the drama, surely foreshadowing the so-called \u2018war of the Waleses<\/a>\u2019 that was to follow. Colthurst reassures her that there would be no need to meet Morton, and that a possible interview could be done via tape recordings. We soon see Diana recording a tell-all side of her story, covering her disintegrating marriage, unhappy childhood as well as her battles with bulimia and depression<\/a>. The drama also has a suggestion of what Diana thought when Charles was asked if he was in love with her and infamously replied \u201cwhatever in love means\u201d. She was, she says, \u201cabsolutely traumatised. My self-worth was cut in two\u201d.<\/p>\n But did events actually unfold in this way? According to Morton \u2013 yes. \u201cI was keen to talk to the Princess directly, but this was simply out of the question. At 6ft 4in tall and as a writer known to Palace staff, I\u2019d hardly be inconspicuous,\u201d Morton told the Daily Mail<\/em><\/a>. \u201cSo I interviewed her by proxy \u2013 giving my questions to James Colthurst, who then conducted six taped interviews with her in her sitting room at Kensington Palace.\u201d<\/p>\n Colthurst has spoken of his experience couriering the tapes; he later told of a moment in a caf\u00e9, when, \u201call around everyone\u2019s eating bacon and eggs chatting away, and I put these headphones on and turn on the tape recorder and listen to Diana talking about bulimia nervosa, which I\u2019d never heard of, talking about her suicide attempts, talking about this woman called Camilla Parker Bowles<\/a>. It was like entering a parallel universe, I walked out of that caf\u00e9 thinking, \u2018Wow what on Earth have I heard?’\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t rock the boat. Ever. To the grave,\u201d Prince Philip warns Diana towards the end of the episode. He has paid a visit to her to warn her about going against \u2018the system\u2019 \u2013 his term for how the royal family often functions less like an ordinary family and more as a united institution. \u201cFor better or for worse, we\u2019re all stuck in it,\u201d he says. Indeed, he even goes as far to call the Queen \u2018the Boss\u2019.<\/p>\n The real Royal Family is indeed referred to in similar terms. \u2018The Firm\u2019 is how it is typically described; it\u2019s a term that gained renewed prominence in Meghan, Duchess of Sussex\u2019s infamous 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview and denotes the entire family and all its associated institutions. The informal name reportedly stems from a statement by the Queen\u2019s father, King George VI<\/a>, who described himself and the rest of the royals as \u201cnot a family, we\u2019re a firm\u201d.<\/p>\n But what do we know about how Philip and Diana really felt about each other? Both the Queen and Prince Philip<\/a> were fond of Diana in the early years. \u201cWhen Diana stayed at Balmoral in the summer of 1980, the Queen and Prince Philip thought she was enchanting,\u201d journalist Penny Junor told HistoryExtra<\/em><\/a>. And, indeed, episode two of The Crown<\/em> chooses to reflect some of this affection. \u201cI can be a tough old nut,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always had a soft spot for you [\u2026] I\u2019ve always felt protective of you.\u201d<\/p>\n Things did, however, change over the years. While Charles initially kept his marital difficulties secret from his parents, as time went on the Queen and Prince Philip became increasingly involved and, according to Junor, \u201cirritated by [Diana]\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDiana\u2019s behaviour was damaging the monarchy, and if there\u2019s one thing the Queen cares about above all else, it\u2019s the monarchy,\u201d said Junor. \u201cShe is safeguarding it for the future; that\u2019s the prime task for any monarch.\u201d<\/p>\n For insight into Diana\u2019s own feelings that caused her to collaborate with Morton and Colthurst on the 1992 tapes, drama viewers can look to the princess\u2019s words, later recorded on video tapes in 1993 and broadcast in a 2017 Channel 4 documentary Diana: In Her Own Words<\/em>. She told of \u201csobbing\u201d to the Queen once she believed she had \u201cconfirmation\u201d that her marriage was loveless. \u201cSo I went to the top lady and said: \u2018I don\u2019t know what I should do\u2019. She said: \u2018I don\u2019t know what you should do.\u2019 And that was it. That was \u2018help\u2019.\u201d<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Rachel Dinning Published: Wednesday, 09 November 2022 at 12:00 am Who is Penelope Knatchbull \u2013 and what was her relationship with Prince Philip? In episode two of The Crown, we see a great deal more of Penelope Meredith Mary Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (played by Natascha McElhone). Penelope and her husband Norton Knatchbull, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19305,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"8"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana.png",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana-300x200.png",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana.png",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana.png",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana.png",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/11\/the-crown-s5-e2-real-history-prince-philips-keeper-of-secrets-and-andrew-nortons-book-on-princess-diana.png",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rachel Dinning Published: Wednesday, 09 November 2022 at 12:00 am Who is Penelope Knatchbull \u2013 and what was her relationship with Prince Philip? In episode two of The Crown, we see a great deal more of Penelope Meredith Mary Knatchbull, Countess Mountbatten of Burma (played by Natascha McElhone). Penelope and her husband Norton Knatchbull,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19304"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2022\/11\/GettyImages-3142598-892498d.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Did Diana record tapes for journalist Andrew Morton?<\/h2>\n
Who was Dr James Colthurst?<\/h4>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Prince Philip, Diana and \u2018the system\u2019<\/h2>\n
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