The Royal Family has 'no one to blame other than themselves' for The Crown storyline, royal expert claims

The fifth season of The Crown will be released in November and is set to be the most explosive yet.

• While the Royal Family is reportedly nervous over its release, royal expert Omid Sobie claims the season's depiction is largely rooted in reality. 
• He argues, "the majority of jaw-droppers in the plot come courtesy of the Royal Family and the press".
• In other royal news, Queen Elizabeth to remain part of new King Charles coins with nostalgic nod

The Crown season 5's highly-anticipated release is just around the corner, but some selected members of the press have already watched the new season.

Royal expert Omid Scobie, who has a long history providing commentary on the royals and their history, has seen the new season of The Crown and has penned an essay on its contents, which, in his opinion, stays true to the facts.

"I’ve spent much of the past week watching the new season and while, due to a pesky embargo, I’m not allowed to share anything about it yet," he wrote for Yahoo, where Scobie acts as royal executive editor. 

"I can say that a lot of this series takes its lead from information readily available in the public domain, be it on-the-record television interviews, Diana’s audio tapes to Andrew Morton, numerous biographies (including Jonathan Dimbleby’s 1994 book, which Charles co-operated with) and archival reporting from British newspapers."

Princess Anne has described before the ‘dangerous’ aspect of The Crown, reflecting on her own portrayal. 

“Making a series about people who are still living is always quite a dangerous thing to do,” she said in 2020, during filming for the documentary Anne: The Princess Royal at 70.

The Crown's previous seasons have had their controversies, with people wondering about how accurate The Crown is and reports that the new series of The Crown could be 'painful' for the Royal Family.

But Scobie has defended the portrayal, saying that much of the scandal is rooted in reality.

"It’s easy to sling mud at episodes few have actually seen yet, but in my opinion much of the scandal this season is sourced from one place: reality. I’d imagine that this is what scares the royal institution the most," he explained.

"Because while The Crown's scripted dialogue comes straight from the writer’s room, and you’d be a fool to treat this show as a historical documentary, the majority of jaw-droppers in the plot come courtesy of the Royal Family and the press.

"And for those, they have no one to blame other than themselves."