EXCLUSIVE: Daily Express spoke to author and historian Marlene Koenig about the real romance between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.

Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana in The Crown season 6 (Image: NETFLIX)

Season six of The Crown, part one is now here and global audiences are binging the four new episodes dropped on Netflix.

Part one begins in the sun-soaked location of Saint Tropez with Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki) on a luxurious yacht holiday with her sons Prince William (Rufus Kampa) and Prince Harry (Fflyn Edwards), which has been facilitated by Mohamed Al-Fayed (Salim Daw).

Mohamed tries to play matchmaker between Princess Diana and his son Dodi (Khalid Abdalla) with romance seemingly blossoming.

As fans will remember, in The Crown season five Mohamed poured scorn on Dodi’s relationship with his American fiancée Kelly Fisher (Erin Richards) given his ambitions to ensconce himself within British high society.

But how much of this romance between Princess Diana and Dodi depicted in The Crown actually accurate and true to life?

How serious was Diana and Dodi’s romance in real-life?

Speaking exclusively to Daily Express, author of Queen Victoria’s Descendants and historical expert Marlene Koenig said of the real-life romance: “That’s a difficult question to answer because she only met him July on the yacht and there were the pictures with the boys and then she went off and did the trip to Angola and then, of course, the visit to Paris.

“From what I’ve read and what other people have said, since we do not have her words, is that this was not serious. This was what we call a ‘summer romance’.

“I don’t think she would have stuck with him. He was wealthy but had no career. He had a fiancée on the side, so not exactly a good catch, Diana.”

Princess Diana would have known about Dodi’s fiancée because it was in the news: “It’s the American girl, she went on TV.”

Princess Diana’s romance with Dodi Fayed was covered in The Crown season 6 (Image: NETFLIX)

Fisher even held a press conference as she hit out at Dodi for dumping her for Princess Diana, claiming she and the playboy had bought a house together in Malibu.

She planned to sue Dodi for breaking up with her but this lawsuit was dropped when Dodi and Princess Diana died.

The model was also on board a neighbouring yacht in St Tropez owned by the Fayeds when she was dumped during a phone call by Dodi as his romance with Princess Diana made headlines.

Moreover, Fisher secretly recorded a phone call with Dodi which was later played at the inquest into Princess Diana’s death in 2007.

Interestingly, a ‘Dis-moi Oui’ ring, or the ‘Tell me Yes’ ring for Diana, was found in Dodi’s hotel room after his death, suggesting he may have been planning to pop the question to the princess – but whether she would have accepted is another matter.

Koenig concluded about Princess Diana’s last romance: “Dodi was the heir but he didn’t have the business acumen that his father had and was more of a playboy.”

She went on to say: “I really don’t think that romance would have panned out. She was on her way back home [to Britain from Paris].

“The interesting thing is from the time Charles and Diana separated, Charles and Diana only saw their children 40 days a year each, so this was her turn.

“She was picking them up to take them to school because Charles had them because it’s boarding school.”

Koenig said Princess Diana had been in love with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Humayun Saeed) but the two had split up due to the intense media scrutiny on her life.

The medic previously reflected at the inquest into her death whether he and Princess Diana may have reconciled: “These are just my thoughts. It is impossible to tell whether we would have got together again, but depending on what would have happened between her and Dodi, it could have been a possibility in the long run.”