Elizabeth Debicki’s Diana in The Crown says she wants to move “away from England” in an echo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s own Royal exit.

In The Crown, Princess Diana’s character, played by Elizabeth Debicki, is shown expressing a desire to move “away from England” to a place like California. This mirrors Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s own Royal exit. In the third episode, Diana has a heart-to-heart with Dodi Fayed, portrayed by Khalid Abdalla, during a visit to his father Mohamed al-Fayed’s yacht in St Tropez. She discusses her struggles with the media, who had been hounding the couple during their holiday.

“They make like they’re your friend, and then they just write insult after insult anyway,” she says. “It makes me want to just move away, start afresh. Move to another country, somewhere like…”

“California,” Dodi suggests. “Exactly,” Diana replies. “Away from England anyway. Somewhere where one can actually be free. Sit under a tiny tree with a boy you like eating ice cream.”

In real life, Diana made similar comments during the same period though in a slightly different context and friends also said relocating to America had been on her mind before her death in a Paris car crash in 1997.

In real life, newspapers quoted Diana discussing the prospect of a move to America during a different moment also depicted in The Crown.

Prince Diana holds Harry in her arms on Buckingham balcony. (Image: Getty)

Episode one shows the princess taking a boat out to meet reporters and waiting paparazzi to ask them to leave, but also poses for pictures and tantalizingly tells them to expect a surprise move from her.

Charles Rae, a former Royal correspondent for The Sun, shared his experience with Newsweek about Princess Diana’s hint at moving to America.

“They got into the speed boat. We all looked, and we think they’re going off to The Jonikal. They head out, and immediately they turn, and we think to ourselves, ‘she’s coming here,'” Rae recalled.

“And she came towards us, she stopped and as you could see with the picture she held onto the side of the boat and she started going on with ‘my kids want me to go to America, I’m sick and tired of everything that’s going on.’

“We kept telling her, if you’re upset with us being here, it’s because you’ve got the future king and his brother here, and you’re holidaying with one of Britain’s most controversial men. We’ll speak to our editors and see what they want to do.

“Six times we asked her that question, and each time she said ‘no, that’s not what I want.’ I just put it down to that phone call. And then at the end, she gave this mysterious statement, ‘you’ll be very surprised with the next thing I do.'”

Newspaper reports from that time support Rae’s account. For instance, the Western Morning News quoted her saying Prince William and Prince Harry “are always urging me to live abroad,” while The Scotsman reported she said: “Maybe that’s what I should do, live abroad.”

The reports also quoted her telling journalists to “expect a big surprise with the next thing I do,” as depicted in The Crown. However, those present described Diana’s behaviour differently than how it is portrayed in the series. The Evening Standard quoted one person saying: “It was not an amicable conversation. Diana was getting increasingly distraught and working herself up.”

Rae mentioned that this conversation happened right after the media saw her having an animated phone call. At the time, the Standard reported that Diana’s team at Kensington Palace denied she had promised a statement: “In the light of reports in this morning’s newspapers, Diana, Princess of Wales, wishes to make it clear that she did not give any exclusive interviews to reporters yesterday.

“Her purpose in talking to some journalists was merely to enquire how long they intended to remain in the South of France, as the oppressive media presence was causing great distress to all the children. There was no discussion of the possibility of any statement being issued in the future.”

However, friends and even family later told the UK police investigation into her death, codenamed Operation Paget, that she had considered moving to America.