The heartbreaking reason Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla disabled comments on their festive post

The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall temporarily removed comments from a social media post wishing followers a Merry Christmas after facing backlash from fans of The Crown.

• The couple chose to disable comments on their annual festive Instagram post following an influx of negative comments, before re-enabling them
• It seems Netflix's The Crown's portrayal of the couple, despite being fiction (if you want to know how accurate The Crown is (opens in new tab), we've delved deeper into the truth behind the storylines), has caused fans to feel the need to lash out at Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla.
• It follows royal news (opens in new tab) that the Queen burst out laughing when she received this gift from Meghan Markle (opens in new tab). 

Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla were forced to remove the comments from their Christmas Day Instagram post following a string of negative comments fuelled by the depiction of the couple in hit Netflix show, The Crown. 

Comments have since been re-enabled on the Instagram post, but according to the Birmingham Mail were switched off on Christmas Day following backlash.

One fan tweeted, 'They disabled replies. He knew we would flood them with Diana.'

Despite how popular the Netflix series is with fans, it has caused people to ask the question, how accurate is The Crown?

And, given Prince Charles portrayal as the "villain" during his marriage to Princess Diana and subsequent relationship with The Duchess of Cornwall, many royal experts have branded it "unfair".

One of those experts is The Prince of Wales' former press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, who has said the show uses "excessive" dramatic license.

Dickie worked alongside the Prince and Princess of Wales for 12 years and defended Prince Charles, saying, "He’s not a villain. He never has been a villain”. 

He went on to say that the show's writer, Peter Morgan, has “portrayed characters whom I don’t know” and reaffirmed his experience, stating, “I spent 12 years at the palace... and these are not the people I knew.”

The former press secretary is not the only person to speak out against The Crown, after Princess Diana's brother said The Crown should come with a warning. 

Charles Spencer said, "I think it would help The Crown an enormous amount if – at the beginning of each episode – it stated that: 'This isn't true, but it is based around some real events'.

"Then, everyone would understand it's drama for drama's sake. Obviously Netflix wants to make a lot of money and that's why people are in the business of making these things."

He went on to say: "I worry people do think that this is gospel, and that's unfair.”

Another royal expert, Hugo Vickers, said it's "disgraceful" what The Crown has done to Prince Charles in season 4.

He told Vanity Fair, "It's really, really disgraceful what they’ve done to him in this season.”