Warning: SPOILERS for The Crown season 5 The Crown season 5 ends by setting up the tragic real-life fates of both Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Al-Fayed (Kalim Abdalla), and the role grieving father Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw) would play in later years. Set between 1992 and 1997, The Crown season 5 follows the breakdown of Charles (Dominic West) and Diana's marriage, and the repercussions for the Royals as Britain moves into the period of modernity heralded by Tony Blair (Bertie Carvel) and New Labour. Season 5 ends with Diana preparing to take her sons on holiday to St. Tropez as guests of the Al-Fayed family, which is when Diana and Dodi entered into a romantic relationship with each other.
The Crown season 6 will explore the relationship between the two before their untimely deaths in Paris in August 1997. Creator Peter Morgan has already tackled the aftermath of Diana's death in the 2006 film The Queen, so it's unlikely that The Crown will extensively explore those events again, especially as it will also explore the ailing health of Princess Margaret (Lesley Manville) prior to her death in 2002. However, Diana and Dodi's tragic deaths in Paris cast a long shadow over Royal life for the decades that followed, and will presumably impact the story that The Crown season 6 will tell.
The True Story Of Mohamed Al-Fayed And Dodi Meeting Diana
The Crown presents Mohamed, Dodi and Diana's first meeting as taking place in 1990 at a polo match, following the death of Al-Fayed's valet and Royal advisor, Sidney Johnson. The Crown is accurate in its presentation of their meeting at a polo match, but it actually happened a few years earlier, in 1986. Rather than being a spectator, as he is in The Crown season 5, episode 3, "Mou Mou", Dodi was actually playing polo against Diana's then-husband Prince Charles. A photo from a year later shows Diana and Mohamed Al-Fayed presenting a prize to Charles at the Harrods Polo Cup.
Between 1987 and 1997, Diana and Mohamed Al-Fayed were pictured together at several events, including a charity dinner for the Harefield Heart Unit in Middlesex held at Harrods in 1996. Although Diana and Dodi didn't interact during this time, they both knew David Puttnam, the producer behind Chariots of Fire, which was funded by the Al-Fayeds, as seen in "Mou Mou". Puttnam was also a friend of the Princess and advised Diana against the Martin Bashir interview. Diana and Dodi eventually met again in the summer of 1997, when she holidayed on Al-Fayed's luxury yacht.
Diana And Dodi's Relationship Before Their Death
As depicted in The Crown season 5, episode 10, "Decommissioned", Diana and her sons were invited on holiday by Mohamed Al-Fayed in the summer of 1997. It was on this holiday that Diana and Dodi met again, entering a romantic relationship under the intense scrutiny of the world's press. It was this press interest in the couple's relationship that would ultimately lead to their tragic deaths shortly after, in August of that year. The Crown season 6 will pick up where season 5 left off, and portray Diana and Dodi's relationship up until their untimely deaths.
The Crown season 5 suggests that Diana's brief relationship with heart surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan ended in the wake of her interview with Martin Bashir. The Crown's portrayal of Diana is inaccurate in this regard, as Khan stated in the 2008 inquest into the Princess' death that the Princess ended their relationship shortly after her holiday with the Al-Fayed family in 1997. As depicted in the final episode of season 5, Dodi was also in a relationship when he met Diana, and was engaged to the model Kelly Fisher.
Diana and Dodi were photographed just off the coast of Portofino in Italy, with a photo of the couple being published on the front page of The Sunday Mirror under the headline "The Kiss". This was on August 10th 1997, only three weeks before Diana and Dodi's deaths would be announced to the press on August 31st. The ravenous press interest in Diana's relationship with Dodi, and their driver's intoxication have been cited as a contributing factor in their deaths, as the paparazzi hounded the couple's car through the Paris streets. Diana's fatal crash won't feature in The Crown, but the repercussions of the tragedy will likely be depicted in the opening episodes of season 6.
What Happened To Mohamed Al-Fayed After Dodi And Diana's Deaths
Mohamed Al-Fayed believed that the deaths of Dodi and Diana were murdered by the British establishment as part of an anti-Muslim conspiracy, because of objections to the couple's relationship. Al-Fayed made his claims in 1998 to the Daily Mirror newspaper in the UK. Al-Fayed also claimed that Dodi and Diana were to be engaged had they survived the crash, which he believed further fueled the conspiracy against them. The billionaire even commissioned his own investigation into the crash, butting up against French authorities, although he did finally accept the findings of the 2008 inquest that found the cause of death to be criminally negligent driving and the reckless behavior of the paparazzi.
Interestingly, The Crown appears to concede Al-Fayed's conspiracy theory, through problematic use of dramatic license. In episode 7, "No Woman's Land", Diana believes her phone's bugged, and experiences brake failure while driving through London. She tells her brother Earl Spencer about this, and while she states it may have just been wear and tear, but The Crown never confirms this. While it's true that Diana did experience a failure with her vehicle's brakes, it was not because of a dark conspiracy, but was reportedly the result of wear and tear.
The inclusion of this moment in her life alongside the phone bugging and the Bashir interview is meant to portray how Diana's paranoia was manipulated by the journalist. However, combined with episode 3's portrayal of the obstacles Mohamed Al-Fayed experienced while attempting to enter British high society, it does have the unintended consequence of lending weight to the most widely spread conspiracy theory around Diana and Dodi's deaths. Discussions about racism within the Royal family increased during the revelations about the treatment of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, so it will be interesting to see how The Crown season 6 handles the contentious issue of Mohamed Al-Fayed's conspiracy theory and his personal investigation into the crash.
The Crown season 5 is now streaming on Netflix.