Everything ‘The Crown’ Got Right and Wrong About Prince Philip

He's Queen Elizabeth II's husband -- and 'The Crown' made him look like a jerk. How accurate was Netflix's series when it comes to Prince Philip?

by Katherine Webb

Published on May 23, 2018

7 min read

If you’ve watched The Crown, then you know it can be a startling look at the inner workings of the royal family. In two seasons, the series has revealed scandalous details about Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret (her sister), and the Duke of Windsor (her uncle).

It’s also shown us the darker side of her relationship with Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Crown has seemingly revealed some shocking secrets about the queen’s husband. But how many of them are actually true?

1. Philip’s upbringing was troubled

Princess Alice of Battenberg and her son, and Prince Philip — Prince Philip (as an infant in his mother’s arms) had a strange childhood. | YouTube

In the second season of The Crown, we learn that though Philip came from royalty, he had a difficult upbringing. And that is, by and large, true to history, too.

Political upheaval forced his family out of Greece when he was just a child — he was smuggled out in an orange crate. His mother suffered a nervous breakdown following their exile. She spent much of Philip’s childhood in a hospital. And his father, for all intents and purposes, moved to France and abandoned him to be raised by his mother’s family in Great Britain.

There’s one thing The Crown got very wrong about Philip’s strained relationship with his parents.