The Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter has reacted to a season three storyline in The Crown which hints that the Queen may have had an affair with her horse racing manager, Lord Porchester. One episode from series three shows her travelling across France and America with 'Porchie' as they research the best way to train race horses. Although there is no hint at a romantic relationship between them, Prince Philip is portrayed as being put out when she returns from the trip after a month when she was only meant to have been gone a week, but soon disregards his suspicions and makes up with Her Majesty.
The Queen and Lord Porchester were good friends
Speaking about the storyline, Dickie told The Times: "This is very distasteful and totally unfounded. The Queen is the last person in the world to have ever considered looking at another man. Not only is this muckraking – this is gossip that’s been washing around for decades. It’s got absolutely no substance. The Crown is fiction. No one knows any conversation between members of the royal family, but people will tell the story they want to and sensationalise it."
READ: Will they cover Princess Anne's kidnap attempt in The Crown season three?
The storyline takes place in season three
The show's screenwriter, Peter Morgan, previously opened up about making the show and how he works with researchers to come up with the storylines. Chatting to GQ, he explained: "I will ask to read everything I can about what happened in [a particular time period] to all the main characters, and then pick certain events. Once I've identified what really interests me, I'll ask the researchers to drill down much more. They provide documents, and I start coming up with stories."