The Crown season 6 highlighted Princess Kate Middleton and Prince William’s collegiate courtship, but at least one member of their family was displeased with the story line.
“I really, really enjoyed the first couple of episodes and the first series of The Crown, but it seems to just drift into this fantasy world,” Gary Goldsmith, the brother of Kate’s mom, Carole Middleton, said on the Thursday, January 11, episode of the “The Crown: Fact or Fiction” podcast. “There’s so many parts of it that I don’t agree with, and I think the narrative and for trying to get headlines and view an audience. So once it started becoming ridiculous and fantastical, it was very difficult to watch, [and] so I stopped.”
He added, “I think from people around the world watching it, they’re seeing this, and they’re believing the truth, and we’re thinking, ‘Am I watching The Crown or is it Coronation Street?’”
Goldsmith joined “The Crown: Fact or Fiction” podcasters Natasha Livingstone and Robert Hardman to recap the season 6 episode “Hope Street,” which was named for the street where Kate, 42, and William, 41, lived during their mutual tenure at the University of St Andrews.
In the episode, The Crown sensationalized William and Kate’s early romance, insinuating that Carole, now 68, engineered her daughter meeting William by making sure that Kate attended the same college as the prince. Kate even likened Carole to Pride and Prejudice’s Mrs. Bennet, the Jane Austen character known for playing matchmaker for her five daughters.
“I don’t understand why Carole hasn’t taken legal action ’cause, literally, it was that bad,” Goldsmith said, defending his sister. “Carole isn’t that manipulative, evil person [who] sat in a dungeon, coming up with ways by which she can actually force her way into the royal family. She’s strong-willed, she’s got opinions; that’s why we’ve got the kids and family we’ve got today.”
Goldsmith also stressed that Kate, who married William in 2011, did “brilliantly well” to get into the Scottish university on her own.
“She’s an amazing, an amazing, an amazing girl, but that wasn’t noted,” he pointed out. “It was all to do with, ‘Kate, you’ve got to be here on this day, wearing these clothes, doing these things, showing your legs,’ and it’s just not my family. It’s not the way Carole operates.”
While Goldsmith has seen bits of The Crown, he speculated that his sibling and her family likely have not. “I think the family is a bit too classy to watch stuff like that,” he said. “But I would say, there’s probably someone taking notes, and saying, ‘They’ve said this.’”
All seasons of The Crown are currently streaming on Netflix.
