The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan has spent a large chunk of his career dramatizing the British royal family.

In addition to The Crown, which wrapped last December after six seasons, Morgan also wrote the 2006 film The Queen and the play The Audience.

Which opened in 2013 and also centers around the late Queen Elizabeth.

Of making The Crown, which debuted in 2016, “it was both more intense and harder work than I predicted,” Morgan told The Hollywood Reporter. 

“And I think it’s only because the material was such a joy to write, and it was such a joy to work on that I had the energy and the stamina to do everything that I did.”

Morgan said that moving forward from where The Crown left off, at the 2005 wedding of then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles.

“feels too soon,” but didn’t rule out revisiting the royal family in the future.

“I don’t think I’m done with the subject,” Morgan said. 

“I might find some way of coming into it from a different way.”

The Crown is up for 18 Emmys at next month’s awards ceremony, and, while the show has received its fair share of praise, Morgan has also endured ample critiques, including rumors about what certain members of the royal family feel about the dramatization of their lives. But, as Morgan told The Hollywood Reporter, he isn’t putting much stock in the buzz.

“I’ve heard that they love it, I’ve heard that they hate it, I’ve heard everything,” he said. “I’ve decided that until one of the members of the royal family tells me directly, in person, I don’t believe anything that I hear.”

With that in mind, here’s what members of the royal family have said about the Netflix hit.

Kate Middleton and Prince William, both 42, didn’t watch The Crown, according to royal biographer Robert Hardman, PEOPLE previously reported. In Hardman’s recently released book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, he quoted a source close to Prince William as saying that the Prince of Wales “rolls his eyes when people say that ‘it’s just drama.’ Yet he will not give it any greater publicity by complaining. He doesn’t like the idea of being seen as a complainer all the time.”

When Olivia Colman (who played Queen Elizabeth in seasons 3 and 4 of the show) asked Prince William if he watched The Crown at a Buckingham Palace reception, she admitted on The Graham Norton Show that it “didn’t go very well,” she said, adding that “His answer was a firm, ‘No.’ But he was very charming and very lovely.”

Prince Harry has watched The Crown before, he told James Corden in a 2021 interview. “They don’t pretend to be news,” Prince Harry said at the time. “It’s fiction. But it’s loosely based on the truth. Of course, it’s not strictly accurate.”

He continued that the show “gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that,” he explained, adding, “I’m way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family, or my wife, or myself. That is obviously fiction — take it how you will. But this is being reported on as fact because you’re supposedly news. I have a real issue with that.”

Later, in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert two years later in 2023, Prince Harry, 39, told the talk show host, “Yes, I have actually watched The Crown,” he said, and, when asked if he did any “fact-checking” while watching, the Duke of Sussex added, “Yes, I do, actually. Which, by the way, is another reason why it’s so important that history has it right.”

In their bombshell 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle, 43, admitted she and her husband had seen “some” of The Crown, PEOPLE previously reported.

If nothing else, King Charles, 75, is apparently aware — and even seemingly amused — by the show. At the state opening of the Scottish Parliament in 2021, Scottish MP Anas Sarwar said the former Prince of Wales said something along the lines of: “Hello, nice to meet you all. I’m nowhere near how they portray me on Netflix.” After Dominic West was cast to play the former prince on seasons 5 and 6 of the series, West offered to step down as an ambassador of The Prince’s Trust, one of the King’s charities. But the royal declined West’s resignation, writing him a letter that West paraphrased, telling Radio Times, “ ‘You do what you like, you’re an actor,’” he said of what Charles wrote to him. “ ‘It’s nothing to do with us.’ I think that’s probably how [Charles] regards it.”

As for Queen Camilla, 77, West said when he saw her at a party in 2021 she jokingly addressed him as “Your Majesty,” knowing he’d be portraying her husband.

In March 2022, the former Duchess of Cornwall poked fun at the situation when Emerald Fennell, who played Camilla on the show, attended one of the royal’s events. “It’s very reassuring to know that if I should fall off my perch at any moment, my fictional alter-ego is here to take over,” Camilla joked. “So Emerald, be prepared!”

While it seems that watching The Crown was a firm no from the late Prince Philip, the jury is still out as to whether the late Queen Elizabeth watched the show, which centered around her life and her history-making reign. “I heard the Queen had watched it, and she used to watch it on a projector on Sunday night, apparently,” Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip on the first two seasons of the show, told Today. As for the man he portrayed? “A friend of mine sat next to [Prince Philip] at a dinner once,” Smith said. “And my friend couldn’t resist by the end of the meal. He was like, ‘Philip, I have to ask, have you watched The Crown?’ And apparently [he] turned around to him and said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’”

Hello! reported that Prince Edward, 60, and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, 59, recommended the show to Her late Majesty, as the two “love The Crown.”

Princess Eugenie, 34, has publicly admitted she’s a fan of The Crown, telling the Daily Mail, “It is filmed beautifully,” she said of the show. “The music is wonderful, the story is beautiful. You feel very proud to watch it. I can’t speak for everyone, but that’s how I felt when I watched it.”

Her mother, Sarah Ferguson, 64, even apparently offered to serve as a consultant for the series, but was turned down. Of writing to Andy Harries, one of the show’s executive producers, “I said to him, ‘Why can’t I help my character?’” she told Town & Country in 2021. Per the same outlet, Ferguson had high praise for the show, saying in an interview “I thought it was filmed beautifully,” she said. “The cinematography was excellent. I loved the way they put my wedding in, as well.”

In a documentary to mark her 70th birthday in 2020, Princess Anne admitted to having watched at least some of the show, per Town & Country, describing it as “quite interesting” — but she “isn’t an avid viewer,” according to the outlet. Her son-in-law, Mike Tindall, 45, said in 2021 that he was watching season 3 and that he only got halfway through, so “I need to catch up.” He added, as the show progressed closer to the present day, “It’s getting to more things that people know about, isn’t it? And [things that people] have opinions about, so that’s where it gets difficult. But remember, everyone, it is a drama, so it’s going to be made to be a bit of a drama.”

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Source: Los Angeles Times (edited)