Harry & Meghan's Story Makes Diana's The Crown Tragedy Even Sadder

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Diana's The Crown season 4 story is now so much sadder following Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's candid interview. The tell-all sit-down with Oprah Winfrey prompted a lot of discussion after it aired on Sunday, March 7, and spawned various opinions. Indirectly, it's also shining a different light on Diana's story of entering the British Royal Family in season 4 of the critically-acclaimed Netflix drama.

The Princess of Wales made her debut in The Crown season 4; what started as a seeming fairy tale in real life quickly became a nightmare when she realized that joining "the institution" wasn't going to be a walk in the park. It was extremely difficult as she dealt with the pressure of being the future Queen, as well as, the blatant infidelity of Charles with Camila Parker-Bowles. Despite The Crown being largely fictionalized, its major storylines are based on what really happened in the real world, and Meghan and Harry's interview backs up most of what's been revealed in season 4, particularly with regard to how Princess Diana's struggles as a member of the monarchy.

There are several parallels between the Duchess of Sussex's recollection of her time as an active working royal and the Princess of Wales' experiences with the British Royal Family as told by The Crown. For starters, both women were initially warmly welcomed to "the institution." As seen in"The Balmoral Test," the Windsors immediately fell in love with Lady Spencer when Charles introduced her; Prince Phillip was particularly smitten, and just after a day of spending time together, he was convinced that she's the perfect wife for his son. As revealed by Harry in the Oprah interview, everyone was originally supportive of his relationship with Meghan, but red flags didn't take long to pop out as some royals became more open about their concerns about her, specifically given that she's mixed-race American.

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The turning point for how both Princess Diana and Meghan were treated by the Royal Family were both after their respective tours of Australia. Granted that the Wales' were already having marital issues before it, they at least tried to mend their relationship during their trip down under as seen in The Crown season 4, episode "Terra Nullius," Charles, and other members of the monarchy got jealous after seeing the overwhelmingly positive reception to Diana in Australia. This is supposedly the same thing that happened to Meghan as also revealed by Harry during the interview. While he didn't name names, he said that seeing the Duchess of Sussex quickly and effectively doing her job evoked memories from the past.

In the broader sense of Diana's story on The Crown thus far, there are other clear similarities with what she goes went through and what Meghan experienced inside "the firm." The most striking one is the lack of support from the Royal Family when she reached out for help. The Duchess recalled how her mental health suffered greatly amidst the barrage of fake news from the tabloids, not to mention the internal issues she and her husband faced as working royals. She tried to repeatedly ask for help, but even when she had thoughts of self-harm, she was essentially instructed to buckle up because going through the psychological struggle was part of the deal. This was reminiscent of Diana repeatedly asking for intervention during some of the most difficult times of her and Charles' marriage, and in the show, the Queen and other members of the monarchy she came into contact with repeatedly ignored her pleas, gaslighting her the same way Meghan was in the real world.

As The Crown season 5 tackles Diana's last few years with the Royal Family leading to her death, it can continue to draw parallels to how the Sussexes navigated on their own after they were cut off from the monarch. But as Harry said in the interview, it was much worse for his mom since she was alone throughout that difficult period. If anything, not only did the Oprah interview confirmed how bad it was for Diana, it also made her life more tragic.