Why The Crown's Dominic West Doesn’t Talk to Prince Harry Anymore
Dominic West, who plays King Charles III on The Crown, was once tight with Charles’ son Prince Harry.
“We sort of [lost touch because] I said too much in a press conference, and so, we didn’t speak after that,” West, 54, said on the Sunday, December 24, episode of “Sunday Morning” on Times Radio, when asked about his friendship with Harry, 39.
After radio presenter Kate McCann pressed West on his initial remarks, he subtly explained what happened. “I think I was asked what we did,” West said. “[And] what we did to celebrate when we got there and [I] probably said too much.”
West and the Duke of Sussex took part in charity event Walking With the Wounded in 2013, where they went on an expedition through Antarctica with injured military veterans. (Harry is a veteran himself and frequently does a lot of charity work to help other former service people.)
Nearly one year after their Walking With the Wounded journey, West was asked about the experience during a January 2014 press conference.
“[Harry] was very much part of the team,” the actor gushed at the time. “He seemed to specialize in building latrines. He built this incredible castellated structure with blocks to keep out the wind, and it even had a [toilet] roll holder.”
On Sunday, West stressed that Walking With the Wounded — and their subsequent falling out — “was over 10 years ago.” As a result, West did not get Harry’s advice to play Charles, now 75, on The Crown.
West joined the Netflix series in 2022’s season 5, playing the older version of Charles and replacing Josh O’Connor.
While Harry did not give West notes to play his father, he has seen the show. (The Crown is based on the reign of his late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.)
“It 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,” Harry said on The Late Late Show With James Corden in February 2021. “I’m way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family, or my wife, or myself.”
In January, Harry noted during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he “fact-checks” the new episodes. “Which, by the way, is another reason why it’s so important that history has it right,” Harry added.
The duke is not the only member of the family who’s seen the fictionalized Crown. In fact, Jonathan Pryce (who played Prince Philip in seasons 5 and 6) had a conversation with Charles’ sister, Princess Anne, about the program.
“When I was made a knight and went to Windsor [Castle], and it was Princess Anne who dubbed me, I was in the middle of playing her father, and there’d been intimations that she’d seen some of it,” Pryce, 76, said on Sunday. “And so she put the sword lightly on the shoulder, and I stood up and I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to say to you, um, sorry? And she said, ‘Why? It’s done now.’”
He clarified, “Now, whether she meant I was saying ‘sorry’ for being here tonight, or sorry for ‘You’ve played my father and it’s done the way you’ve done it, it’s whatever,’ it was quite an amusing moment for me, at least.”
All six seasons of The Crown are currently streaming on Netflix.
