'The Crown' Season 4 Episode 3: Did Diana have an eating disorder? Here's how Prince Charles may have triggered it
Spoilers for 'The Crown' Season 4
(Trigger Warning for depictions of eating disorders)
In Season 4 of Netflix's 'The Crown', we are finally introduced to Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin), who married Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) to become the Princess of Wales. Diana's is perhaps the most famous story from the British royal family and it is hard to see her life without the impact of Charles's affair on it. In fact, the third episode shows that Princess Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) was the only one who correctly predicted that the marriage would fail because Charles was in love with someone else -- Camilla Parker-Bowles (Emerald Fennell).
But there was another side of Princess Diana that we did not get to see. It was not until after her divorce from Prince Charles that Diana opened up about her struggle with an eating disorder. The third episode of 'The Crown' shows viewers the heartbreaking way in which Diana's eating disorder began and how it was tied to her insecurity over Charles's affair with Camilla, which was still ongoing when he asked Diana to marry her -- he even suggested that Diana hang out with Camilla because she was the "best company."
We first see Diana eat food and then throw up when she has been left alone at Buckingham Palance just after they get engaged. Later, when she meets Camilla for dinner and the latter goes on about all the things she knows about Charles, Diana gets an inkling of their closeness and this triggers another episode for her. Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell told True Royalty TV's 'The Royal Beat' that the eating disorder gave her a sense of control that she did not have in any other aspect in her life. Though Diana claimed she overcame the illness, Burrell believes that it never left her life. He said, "She never conquered it because it was her control, her way of having control of something in her life."
In an interview for the Channel 4 documentary, 'Diana: In Her Own Words', Diana revealed that she first developed symptoms of the eating disorder after discovering Charles's infidelity and going to Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Coleman) for help. She said, "It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals, and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger." The documentary was based on Andrew Morton's book of the same name. His material was comprised of what Diana told James Colthurst, her friend, who then handed Morton the tapes.
“The bulimia started the week after we got engaged (and would take nearly a decade to overcome),” Diana said on the tapes. “My husband [Prince Charles] put his hand on my waistline and said: ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’ and that triggered off something in me. And the Camilla thing.”
She also added, "Everyone in the family knew about the bulimia, and everyone blamed the bulimia for the failure of the marriage," saying that the eating disorder was the most discreet way she could self-harm.
It was Emma Corrin who insisted that Diana's struggle with the eating disorder be depicted in 'The Crown'. In an interview with Radio Times, she said, "I felt that if we were trying to depict bulimia in an honest way, we had to actually show it—otherwise it’s a disservice to anyone who has been through that." She added, "I don’t think we should shy away from those conversations. Diana was very candid about her experience with bulimia, and I so admire that."
'The Crown' Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.
