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The Latch

Bob Hawke’s Granddaughter Was “Blindsided” by Late PM’s Portrayal on ‘The Crown’

December 2, 2020
Prince Charles and Princess Diana with Bob and Hazel Hawke, 1983
Getty Images

Sophie Taylor-Price, the granddaughter of late Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, has said that she felt “completely blindsided” by the depiction of her grandfather in Netflix’s The Crown. 

Taylor-Price revealed her feelings about the Season 4 episode — titled Terra Nullius — on Tuesday’s episode of The Ben, Rob & Robbo show, saying that while she is a fan of the hit series, she objected to a scene which showed the former PM comparing the Queen to a pig. 

“I was completely blindsided,” Taylor-Price said. “I had no idea it was coming. I was like, “Oh, that’s my pop!”

She continued, ‘One of the most important things I’ve learnt growing up in the halo of the media spotlight is that I can’t judge my family or myself for how we are portrayed in media.

“For me, it’s one of my favourite Netflix shows, but I’m not going to get caught up in whether it’s accurate or not – because I’m sure it wasn’t.”

Meanwhile, the ABC has also disputed Hawke’s alleged slur against the Queen, as well as claiming that the storyline around Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s 1983 tour of Australia was rife with errors. 

The episode in question recreates an ABC interview in which the top politician (played by Richard Roxburgh) says, “You wouldn’t put a pig in charge of a herd of prime beef cattle, even if it does look good in twin set and pearls.”

The network brought receipts, sharing evidence on Twitter that supported their claims of inaccuracy. 

Uploading archival footage of the actual interview to the social media platform, the national broadcaster wrote: “While we’ve enjoyed your creative license, Hawke did not call the Queen a pig on our show. Here’s what he really said.”

The date and location of the interview were also contested, with The ABC explaining that it occurred on February 12, not 26 and in Melbourne, not Canberra. 

Netflix has not yet responded to the tweets. 

This controversy is just the latest in a string of objections levelled against the Emmy-award winning series. 

The brother of the late Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, voiced his own displeasure at the portrayal of his sibling (played by Emma Corrin) lamenting, ‘It is very hard, there is a lot of conjecture and a lot of invention, isn’t there? You can hang it on fact but the bits in between are not fact.’

Additionally, Britain’s Culture Minister, Oliver Dowden, has expressed his intention to write to Netflix urging them to include a “health warning” on the streaming series, calling it a “beautifully produced work of fiction.” 

Season 4 of Netflix’s The Crown is available to stream now. 

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