The fourth series of Netflix’s The Crown comes out Sunday, and many are anxiously awaiting to watch Prince Charles and Diana’s relationship unfold. The new series will introduce Lady Diana to the show and her personal battle with bulimia.
Emma Corrin, who plays the late Princess, wanted to portray Diana’s secret struggles with an eating disorder “in an honest way” on the show. Corrin herself insisted screenwriters include graphic scenes depicting Diana’s bulimia.
“We’d been working on her body language, and we put together a document that we sent to the script team and said: ‘Can you include some of this in the writing because we’d love to really flesh out those scenes?'” Corrin told the Radio Times.
“I felt that if we were trying to depict bulimia in an honest way, we had to actually show it – otherwise it’s a disservice to anyone who has been through that,” the actress added. “I don’t think we should shy away from those conversations; Diana was very candid about her experience with bulimia, and I so admire that.”
Before filming, Corrin did extensive research on eating disorders to prepare for her role telling Variety, “You can’t do justice to everything she was experiencing without including that. It was so symptomatic of the emotional turmoil and all the suppressed emotions that she was feeling.”
Corrin, 24, was born just before Diana’s death and has no memory of the iconic princess – something she says was an advantage in trying to portray her because she could bring her own interpretation to Diana.
Diana, Princess of Wales opened up about her struggles in a 1995 sit-down interview with BBC1 Panorama, referring to bulimia as a “secret disease” she dealt with for years. This would also be the same interview in which Diana would talk about Prince Charles’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
“It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals, and people were using my bulimia as a coat on a hanger. They decided that was the problem: Diana was unstable,” she said. “The cause was the situation where my husband and I had to keep everything together because we didn’t want to disappoint the public, and yet obviously there was a lot of anxiety going on within our four walls.”
Embed from Getty ImagesIn a 2017 documentary, “Wasting Away: The Truth About Anorexia,” Prince William spoke on his mother’s eating disorder for the first time – 20 years after her death in a Paris car crash.
“We need to be matter-of-fact about it, and not hide it in the dark where it festers. These are illnesses; mental health needs to be taken as seriously as physical health.”
William also went on to add that he was “absolutely” proud of his mother for speaking out about her struggles during her lifetime.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, please click here.
