'The Crown' Season 4: Who is Carol Thatcher? How Margaret Thatcher's preference for Mark led to sibling rivalry
In 'The Crown', 'The X Files' actress Gillian Anderson plays Britain's first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Anderson's performance is uncanny and brings to life one of the most important people in British politics. Through her appearances, we learn a lot more about Thatcher -- and while she was the first female Prime Minister of Britain, we learn that she was quite sexist and liked to stick to the patriarchal norms.
One of the ways we learn of this is when we find out that while Thatcher had twins, a boy Mark, and a girl, Carol (both grown up by the time she became the Prime Minister), she had a preference for her son Mark. This is especially visible when Thatcher gets upset after her son goes missing in the desert while competing in the Paris Dakar Rally. Her maternal affection and anxiety for her son’s well-being impede her ability to run the country in the way she is used to.
Much like all else in 'The Crown', while the creators have taken a dramatic license, events depicted are rooted in reality. It is no wonder, then, that we don't hear or see much of Thatcher's daughter, Carol Thatcher. Carol is an English journalist and media personality. While she is best known for being Thatcher's daughter, Carol herself has some claim to fame on her own -- she won the fifth series of the British reality show 'I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!' in 2005.
Carol began her career as a journalist in Australia, working on the Sydney Morning Herald from 1977 to 1979. She became a TV reporter at Channel Seven, also in Sydney, and later a reporter on its news morning show, '11AM'. On her return to Britain, she worked as a presenter for LBC, BBC Radio 4, TV-am, and wrote travel articles for The Daily Telegraph. Due to her mother's high-profile political position, many newspapers refused to publish work with her byline.
Many viewers might wonder whether Margaret Thatcher's obvious preference for her twin brother would have affected Carol. Recent events have shown that the siblings are not that close. After Margaret Thatcher's death in 2013, the twins inherited many of her personal possessions and were given the chance to acquire gifts she had received when she was prime minister. However, as reported by The Telegraph, Carol decided to auction off a substantial amount of her late mother's possessions, much to her brother's disappointment.
Sources reportedly said that Mark and Carol "cannot bear to be in the same room," the rift only growing wider following Carol's decision to profit off their mother's belongings. A member of Margaret's political party told The Mail on Sunday, "For once, Mark is on the side of the angels. His only concern is to protect his mother's legacy and he thinks this sale is simply abhorrent. They were extraordinarily close and he would never sell anything of hers."
All episodes of the fourth season of 'The Crown' are now streaming on Netflix.