PRINCESS ALICE has been the breakout character of series three of Netflix’s hit drama, The Crown. So what was Princess Alice really like? And what Royal Family member did Prince Philip’s mother have a “lovely relationship” with?
Princess Alice of Battenberg was at the heart of a crucial storyline in The Crown this series. As the mother of the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, Alice was known to greatly adore her son.
In the recent series, the relationship between Alice and one of her son’s children is explored.
Princess Anne, portrayed by Erin Doherty, is seen getting her grandmother to give an interview to a journalist, where Alice explains her intriguing, turbulent life.
But did the interview we see on screen ever happen?
And did Princess Anne really have a good relationship with her paternal grandmother?
Princess Alice: The real TRUTH behind Prince Philip’s mother ‘She was NOTHING like that’ (Image: GETTY)
Princess Alice: Prince Philip’s parents Princess Alice and Prince Andrew of Greece (Image: GETTY)
Royal biographer Hugo Vickers has analysed every episode of The Crown in his book, ‘The Crown Dissected’.
He spoke to Express.co.uk about the differences between Princess Alice in real life, and the fictional version presented to us on screen.
Mr Vickers said: “Jane Lapotaire is a good actress and most viewers warm to her portrayal of Princess Alice, but she was nothing like that.
“She was almost stone deaf and therefore somewhat remote, quite forthright and rather austere.
Princess Alice: Princess Alice with her son, Prince Philip (Image: GETTY)
“She was a saintly character and she was indeed a philanthropist.
“She founded a nursing sisterhood, hid a Jewish family during the war and gave everything she owned away.”
Following a political coup in Greece in 1967, The Crown storyline shows Prince Philip as reluctant to invite his mother to live with them in Buckingham Palace.
But according to Mr Vickers, Philip’s real reaction was quite different.
Mr Vickers added: “Prince Philip she adored, and he was good to her.
“Unlike The Crown, he had been trying to get her to come and live with them in London for ages.
“Only when her daughter Sophie said that the invitation came from the Queen did she instantly agree to come over.”
And although there is no evidence any interview with Princess Alice and a Guardian journalist ever occurred in real life, Mr Vickers says Princess Anne did have a good relationship with her grandmother.
Princess Alice: Princess Anne (left) is said to have had a good relationship with her paternal grandmother (Image: GETTY)
He said: “She had a lovely relationship with Princess Anne.
“No interviews or wandering about the palace, and she lived in enormous rooms at the front of the palace, not in an attic!”
Princess Alice of Battenberg was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Her mother, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, was Queen Victoria’s granddaughter.
Princess Alice’s brother was Lord Louis Mountbatten, who would become an integral member of the British Royal Family.
At the age of 20, Princess Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, subsequently becoming known as Princess Andrew.
The couple’s youngest child and only son, Philip, would later marry Queen Elizabeth II, renouncing his own royal titles in the process.
Alice lived out much of her later in life in Greece, but died at Buckingham Palace in 1969, at the age of 84.
Source: EXPRESS CO UK
