The Crown Season 5 hits Netflix today (November 9), and finds director Peter Morgan re-enacting some of the biggest scandals the royal family has seen, in the latest series of Netflix’s best shows.
In addition to the controversial Princess Diana/Martin Bashir interview, the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson, Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, Morgan also deals with Tampongate, making headlines (again). Of course, beware of spoilers for The Crown season 5, but you probably already know if you’re reading this article.
But is the on-screen dialogue, where Prince (now King) Charles tells Camilla Parker-Bowles that he would like to reincarnate as a tampon (so he can live inside it), fact or fiction? Read on to find the real story behind “Tampongate”. Not for you? over here What’s new on Netflix this week.
The true story behind ‘Tampongate’ in Season 5 of The Crown
As The Crown portrays, “Tampongate” refers to an intimate telephone conversation between long-term lovers Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. During the six-minute conversation, recorded by a radio enthusiast who stumbled across chat using a scanner, the Prince and Parker Bowles talked about being intimate with each other, and Charles famously talked about his reincarnation as a Tampax(a). tampon brand).
The phone call was printed verbatim in the People’s Gazette in January 1993, under the headline “Charles and Camilla – The Tape.” As if anyone could have any doubts about the correctness of the words said by the future king, the sound was also released. The conversation took place in 1989 when Charles was still married to Princess Diana, and Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles.
The infamous portion of the text went as follows:
Charles: My God. I’ll just live inside your pants or something. It will be easier!
Camila: (laughs) What are you going to turn into, a pair of underwear? (They both laugh.) Oh, you’ll be back as a pair of underwear.
Charles: Or, God forbid, Tampax. Just had fun! (Laugh).
Camila: You are a complete idiot! (laughs) Oh, what a great idea.
According to the sources, the negative comments and press that accompanied it shook the palace. Princess Diana’s former personal protection show, Ken Wharf, wrote in his book Guarding Diana: Protecting The Princess Around The World: “The reaction was brutal. Establishment figures loyal to the future king and country appalled, and some questioned the prince’s suitability to rule.”
In the press at the time, Prince Charles was widely criticized for this issue. Since then, Wharf has said that even Diana, who is famous for saying Bashir “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” called the tape “sick.”
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly (Opens in a new tab)Dominic West, who plays Prince Charles in season five of The Crown, spoke about how he handled this particular scene. I remember thinking it was a very dirty and embarrassing thing [at the time]West said. Looking back, having to turn it on, what you realize is that the blame wasn’t with these two, lovers, who were having a private conversation. What is really [clear now] It is the extent of the violation and disgust that caught the attention of the press, they literally print it and you can call a number and listen to the actual tape. I think it made me very sympathetic to the two of them and what they went through.”
West added that he and Olivia Williams, who plays Camilla Parker Bowles, approached the storyline with “sympathy” for their characters. “We both felt we wanted to be done right by our characters,” he said. “We felt the odds were stacked a bit against their relationship and we wanted to try to make it as sympathetic as possible.”
This is at odds with Prince Charles from Season 4, Josh O’Connor, who said in an interview with SiriusXM (Opens in a new tab)“When they offered me the role, one of my first questions – I say questions, I think was pretty much a phrase – was ‘We don’t make a phone call to the stopper.'”
The Crown Season 5 is available to stream on Netflix now.
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