As Prince Harry recently explained to James Corden (per BBC), he's more comfortable with The Crown's approach to royal life than that of the notoriously vicious British tabs, saying of the show, "They don't pretend to be news. It's fictional, but it's loosely based on the truth."

Princess Cecilie's death is a perfect example of the way the show manipulates the story and elides some of the real-life details in favor of more dramatic storylines. Vogue notes that, while the show got many key features of Cecilie's story right (including her pregnancy, in-flight birth, and death in the plane crash), it strayed from the truth when it came to Philip's role in his sister's death. Namely, that he actually had no role, contrary to the event's depiction on The Crown when Philip's decision to not visit Cecilie meant that she boarded the flight that led to her death. In reality, a royal biographer is quoted in the Vogue piece as reiterating that Cecilie was always going to attend the wedding and that "Prince Philip had nothing to do with the accident at all."

In the end, even circumstances as tragic as Cecilie's death and Philip's lonesome childhood still receive a bit of Hollywood embellishment. Still, as Philip might say, you just have to get on with it, as one does.

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