Princess Di biographer blown away by Elizabeth Debicki’s Diana portrayal in ‘The Crown’

Los Angeles: Andrew Morton, who is the biographer of Princess Diana, has shared that he was “left breathless” by Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of the royal family member in the recently released 5th season of the streaming show ‘The Crown’, reports Entertainment Weekly.

Morton wrote ‘Diana: Her True Story’ in collaboration with the Princess. On the shelves in July 1992, it revealed Diana’s unhappiness with her marriage to the unfaithful Prince Charles, her battle with bulimia, and her feelings of loneliness and depression.

Morton denied at the time that Diana had helped him write the book, even as ‘Diana: Her True Story’ became a publishing sensation, was translated into 29 languages, and reportedly sold five million copies around the world.

‘Entertainment Weekly’ reported that Morton’s work effectively signalled the end of the royal marriage, and in December 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced that the couple had separated. Morton and Diana’s collaboration on the book is detailed in the new season of the hit Netflix series.

“It left me breathless, and it took me back all those years,” Morton said in a ‘Good Morning America’ interview. “I mean, I don’t say this very often, but I was shaken.”

To write ‘Diana: Her True Story’, Morton sent questions to the princess via her friend Dr. James Colthurst. Diana then recorded answers to the author’s queries.

Entertainment Weekly further states that Morton said he was unaware of Diana’s desperate state of mind when he began the project.

“What I didn’t realise at the time was her sense of isolation, her sense of despair inside the royal system,” he said.

In October 1997, just months after the princess’ death in a Paris car crash, Morton published a new edition of the book titled ‘Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words’.

This time, the author made clear that Diana had been the principal source for the original book and included edited transcripts of her recorded responses to his questions.

Morton acted as a consultant on season 5 of ‘The Crown’ and is played on the series by Andrew Steele.

–IANS