Split of Prince Harry and Princess Diana© Getty

What Prince Harry really thought of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's relationship

The Crown season six covers the final weeks of Diana, Princess of Wales's life

Online Royal CorrespondentLondon
November 18, 2023

Season six of The Crown dropped on Thursday and one of the storylines focuses on the relationship between the late Diana, Princess of Wales and Egyptian-born film producer, Dodi Fayed.

The first four episodes cover the eight weeks leading up to the Princess and Dodi's tragic deaths in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

In the Netflix drama, Prince William's character is seen telling Diana that he thinks Dodi is weird, and asks her - alongside Prince Harry – if they plan on getting engaged, which she emphatically denies.

WATCH: The Crown season six trailer

In reality, William has never shared his opinion of Dodi publicly.

Harry, however, has made comments about what he thought about his late mother's boyfriend.

Writing in his tell-all memoir, Spare, which was published in January, the Duke of Sussex recalled a childhood flashback he had while completing his Apache helicopter training.

© Getty Images

The late Dodi Fayed pictured in 1987

© Getty

Dodi's father Mohamed Al-Fayed (far left) and Diana, Princess Of Wales (right of Mohammed) are seen in St Tropez with William and Harry in July 1997

"Circling London one night, I was suddenly blinded, and thought for half a second that I might drop into the Thames. I saw bright colors, mostly emerald green, and after a few seconds I realized: someone on the ground had hit us with a laser pen. I was disoriented. And furious. But I told myself to be grateful for the experience, for the practice.

"I was also perversely grateful for the stray memory it knocked loose. Mohamed Al Fayed, giving Willy and me laser pens from Harrods, which he owned. He was the father of Mummy's boyfriend, so maybe he was trying to win us over. If so, job done. We thought those lasers were genius. We whipped them around like light sabers."

The Crown season five recap

© The Crown

Imelda Staunton as The Queen in The Crown

  • Prince Charles and Princess Diana marriage breakdown

Season five began with Princess Diana devastated that their second honeymoon was halted abruptly by Princes Charles. 

  • "Queen Victoria Syndrome"

Prince Charles met with the Prime Minister after a published poll about the public's opinion of the monarchy. The idea of The Prince's Trust was born. 

  • Princess Diana In Her Own Words

Princess Diana was approached by journalist Andrew Morton to write the book, In Her Own Words. 

  • Annus Horribilis

The Queen's 'Annus Horribilis' was in 1992 following a fire at Windsor Castle, and the breakdown of two of her son's marriages. 

  • An intercepted phone call makes the news

A phone call between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was intercepted by journalists and published in a newspaper. 

  • Panorama Interview

The infamous and now suspect Panorama interview with Princess Diana by Martin Bashir aired much to the royal family's dismay. 

Harry also referenced Diana and Dodi's relationship as he opened up about his wife Meghan's mental health struggles in the Apple TV+ series The Me You Can't See, which was released in May 2021.

© Netflix

Diana and Dodi's characters in The Crown

He said of Meghan: "She was going to end her life. It shouldn't have to get to that. Do I have any regrets? Yeah. My biggest regret is not making more of a stance earlier on in my relationship with my wife and calling out the racism when I did. 

"History was repeating itself. My mother was chased to her death while she was in a relationship with someone that wasn't white and now look what's happened. You wanna talk about history repeating itself? They're not gonna stop until she dies. It's incredibly triggering to potentially lose another woman in my life.

Check out HELLO!'s A Right Royal Podcast. In this week's episode, we talk royal romances and discover William and Kate's most difficult public engagement, and how they overcame it:

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