May 31, 2026

7. Elizabeth's Death & The Coronation

Show Notes
Transcript

The Queen dies at Balmoral at age 96. Charles, at 73, finally becomes King after the longest wait in British history. The transition is smooth, but Charles knows he has limited time. His coronation in May 2023 is deliberately scaled back—a "slimmed-down monarchy" for modern times. But the family is fractured: Harry attends alone, Andrew is absent, William is distant. Charles has the crown he waited his entire life for, but the family is broken.

While no one truly knows what happens behind closed palace doors, this series uses news sources, on-the-record quotes, and some artistic license to craft this entertainment series. Some moments have been dramatized for storytelling effect. AI narration was used in creation of this series.

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Calarugu Shark Media.

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There is a plan for everything in the royal family.

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There is a plan for jubilees and funerals, and coronations

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and crises. There is a plan for the death of

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the monarch, and it has a name. It is called

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Operation London Bridge. And for the seventy years that Elizabeth

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sat on the throne, that plan sat in a draw

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updated periodically, waiting for the day it would be needed.

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On September eighth, twenty twenty two, it was needed. Elizabeth

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had spent the summer at Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands,

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as she did every year. It was the place she

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loved most, the estate that felt most genuinely like home

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rather than institution. She had been there in August of

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nineteen ninety seven, when Diana died. She had been there

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through decades of summers, walking the land, breathing the Scottish air,

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existing for a few weeks each year at a slight

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remove from the demands of the crown. By the summer

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of twenty twenty two, by many accounts, those around her

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were aware that her health was declining. She had been

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using a walking stick at public engagements. She had canceled

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appearances that in previous years she would have attended without hesitation.

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In February of twenty twenty two, she had contracted the coronavirus,

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and while she had recovered, those around her noted that

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the recovery had taken something from her that had not

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fully returned. Her final public duty was on September sixth,

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twenty twenty two. She received the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss,

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at Balmoral, fulfilling the constitutional obligation she had fulfilled fifty

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times before with fifty different governments. The photographs from that

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day showed a woman who appeared frail, her hands visibly bruised,

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her posture diminished from the upright bearing that had defined

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her public image for seven decades. But she was there.

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She did her duty. That was who she was. Two

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days later, on the afternoon of September eighth, Buckingham Palace

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issued a statement saying that the Queen's doctors were concerned

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for her health and that she was under medical supervision

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at Balmral. The statement was brief. It was also to

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those practiced in reading palace communications, alarming statements of that

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kind are not issued lightly. The family began traveling to

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balmorel Charles was already there. William traveled from Windsor. Harry,

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who was in the United Kingdom for a charity event,

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traveled separately. Whether Harry arrived before or after the Queen

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died has been reported differently by different accounts, and the

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precise timeline of those final hours remains in some details unclear.

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What is clear is that Buckingham Palace announced that the

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Queen had died that evening at Balmoral. She was ninety

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six years old. She had reigned for seventy years and

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two hundred and fourteen days, the longest reign in British history.

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She had been queen for longer than most of her

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subjects had been alive. This is Crown and Controversy, King Charles.

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Episode seven, Elizabeth's Death and coronation in London. The flag

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above Buckingham Palace was lowered to half masted. Crowds began

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gathering outside the palace almost immediately, people arriving with flowers

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and candles and a need. It seemed simply to be

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somewhere that felt connected to what had happened. The b

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BC interrupted its programming, anchors appeared in black. The Prime

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Minister spoke from Downing Street, world leaders issued statements, the

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machinery of a prepared and practiced national mourning began to move,

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and in the middle of all of it, Charles. He

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was king now, not in waiting, not the heir, the king.

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After seventy three years of preparation, of patients, of waiting,

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of watching his mother fulfill a roll that he had

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known since childhood, would one day be his. It was his.

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The transition had happened in the space of a heartbeat,

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in the moment between his mother's last breath and the

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first moment of his reign, and there was nothing ceremonial

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about it. There was no coronation, yet, there was no crown.

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There was just the fact of it, immediate and irreversible,

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in a castle in Scotland on a September evening. By

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most accounts, Charles appeared visibly moved in those first hours,

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carrying the weight of the moment with a composure that

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was itself a kind of tribute to everything his mother

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had modeled over seven decades. He had prepared for this

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his entire life, and yet, by most accounts, nothing quite

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prepares you for the reality of it when it arrives.

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He addressed the nation for the first time as king

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the following day, in a televised broadcast that was widely

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praised for its warmth and its evident personal grief. He

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spoke about his mother with genuine feeling. He spoke about

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the scale of what the country and the Commonwealth had lost,

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and he acknowled in terms that were careful but unmistakable,

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the new reality that had arrived. The ten days of

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national mourning that followed were by any measure extraordinary. Hundreds

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of thousands of people queued for hours, sometimes more than

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twenty hours, to file past the Queen's coffin as it

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lay in state at Westminster Hall. The queue stretched for

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miles along the south bank of the Thames. People of

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every age and background stood in it through the night

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and through the rain, waiting for their few seconds in

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that hall to pay their respects to a woman who

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had been a constant in British life for as long

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as almost anyone could remember. Charles moved through those ten

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days with a visible dedication to honoring his mother and

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to being present for his country. He met the public,

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he received the condolences of world leaders, he oversaw as

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the new head of the institution the meticulous management of

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a mourning period that had been planned in precise detail,

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and that proceeded largely as planned. The state funeral was

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held at Westminster Abbey on September nineteenth, twenty twenty two.

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It was attended by heads of state and dignitaries from

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across the world. The coffin was carried through the streets

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of London on a gun carriage, as Diana's had been

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a quarter century before. The streets were lined with people.

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The silence was extraordinary. The queen was buried at Windsor

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Castle in the King George the Sixth Memorial Chapel, alongside

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Prince Philip, who had preceded her by seventeen months. The

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coronation of King Charles the Third was held on May

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the sixth, twenty twenty three, at Westminster Abbey. It was

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the first coronation in seventy years, and the first that

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most people alive had ever witnessed. Reporting at the time

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indicated that Charles had taken a close personal interest in

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the shape of the ceremony, and it reflected both the

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ancient traditions of the institution and a conscious effort to

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make it relevant to a modern and diverse nation. It

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was deliberately scaled back from the coronation of nineteen fifty three,

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Fewer foreign dignitaries, a shorter guest list, a service that

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ran for approximately two hours rather than the longer ceremonies

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of previous centuries. Charles had spoken publicly about his belief

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in a slimmed down monarchy, a smaller and more focused institution,

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and the coronation was in part a statement of that vision.

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Camilla was crowned queen alongside him, a moment that carried

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its own extraordinary weight of history. The woman who had

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been village for decades, who had been the target of

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sustained tabloid hostility for the better part of thirty years,

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was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom. Whatever one thought

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of the path that had led there, the distance traveled

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between the Commiligate tapes of nineteen ninety two and the

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crown placed on her head in Westminster Abbey in twenty

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twenty three was almost impossible to fully comprehend. William was

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present as Prince of Wales and heir to the throne,

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fulfilling the role with the seriousness and composure that had

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come to define his public presence. His three children, George,

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Charlotte and Louis attended. The image of the family on

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the balcony at Buckingham Palace afterward was the image the

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Palace wanted the world to see, a dynasty continuing, a

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family intact, a future assured, But the family was not

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entirely intact, and everyone watching knew it. Harry attended the

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cor Nation. He traveled from California for it, arriving the

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day before and leaving the day after, a visit so

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brief that its brevity was itself a statement. He sat

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in the third row, not among the working royals on

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the front row, a seating arrangement that was widely seen

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as a visible expression of his changed status within the family.

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No extended private interaction between Harry and Charles was publicly evident,

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and the precise nature of any private contact during that

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visit has not been fully reported. Megan did not attend.

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She remained in California with their children, and her absence

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was noted by every outlet covering the event. The reasons

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were not publicly explained in detail. By that point, the

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strain between the Sussexes and the Institution was no longer

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a matter of speculation. Charles had his crown. He had

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waited longer for it than any heir in British history.

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He had outlasted the doubt and the criticism, and the

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years of being defined by his failures rather than his purpose.

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He had arrived finally at the role for which everything

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else had been preparation. But the arrival was complicated, as

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most arrivals are when the journey has been as long

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and as costly as this one. A son was present,

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but not where many expected to see him. A family

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was divided in ways that public occasions could paper over

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but not resolve. And Charles himself, at seventy four years old,

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knew that the time he had to make his kingship

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means something was not unlimited. He had the crown, what

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he did with it, and whether the fractures around him

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could ever be repaired were the questions that now defined

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whatever came next next time on crown and controversy, King

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Charles the King faces the most personal decision of his reign.

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His brother Andrew, disgraced by his association with Jeffrey Epstein,

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has become an impossible burden for the institution. Charles must

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choose between family, loyalty and the crown. He has spent

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his entire life protecting the decision. When it comes, will

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be final.

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Crown and Controversy is a production of Calaroga Shark Media

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executive producers Mark Francis and John McDermott. While no one

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truly knows what happens behind closed palace doors, this series

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uses news sources, on the record, quotes, and some artistic

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license to craft this entertainment series. Some moments have been

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dramatized for storytelling effect, where appropriate character perspectives and motivations

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are drawn from reported accounts, interviews, and biographical sources. AI

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narration was used in the creation of this series. To

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keep up with the modern day Royal family, follow our

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podcast Pallace Intrigue, a seven day a week, ten minute

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update on the Royals.