The next instalment of The Crown is dropping – and after the first four episodes centred on Dodi Al Fayed and Princess Diana’s tragic death, the attention is now turning to the blossoming relationship between a young Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales.
In snippets shown, the series is also giving us some backstory on the royal romance. Whether it’s true or not, however, is a whole different story. And as we all know, the lines are often blurred when it comes to fact and fiction in The Crown.
In one scene, a young Kate Middleton (Meg Bellamy) and her mother, Carol, are seen walking down the street. There, they spot a young Prince William (Rufus Kampa) and Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) raising money for the Big Issue. As Kate pops some coins in the collection pot, Diana greets the teenage girl who would one day become her daughter-in-law.
Of course, no scene would be complete without an unrequited crush. After the shy teens share some eye contact, Kate is shown cutting out pictures of the Prince to put on her wall as her mother looks on. Look, we’ve all been there.
Although an amusing backstory, the question is whether there’s any truth to it.
In her life, Princess Diana was a strong supporter of The Big Issue – often campaigning around issues of homelessness. Following in his mother’s footsteps, William also supports the street paper. Back in 2022, he was spotted blending into the streets of Westminster as he sold issues of the magazine. Therefore, it’s not too far-fetched to believe that his mother may have got him involved in the cause at some point in his childhood...
However, there’s absolutely no proof that they were collecting money together – and even less proof hinting that this was the couple’s first meeting.
In 2017, William confirmed that Kate had never met his mother – saying, 'I would love her to have met Catherine and to have seen the children grow up. It makes me sad that she won’t, that they will never know her.'
Likewise, Kate shared in her engagement video how she would have ‘loved’ to have met her mother-in-law, saying ‘She’s an inspirational woman to look up to.'
The show also shows the young royals meeting while at St Andrew University – including Kate’s iconic fashion show. Of course, this one is actually true. The pair did meet whilst studying in 2002 (at which point Diana had already passed away.)
So while it can’t be said for certain that the two never met during a charity fundraiser on the streets of London, it seems that this particular street meeting is simply an artistic choice by those working on the hit Netflix Series.
Charlotte Roberts is news and entertainment writer at Grazia UK, working across TV, pop culture, and current affairs.