King Charles and Queen Camilla Face Public as 'The Crown' Airs

King Charles III and Queen Camilla put on a brave face for a round of royal engagements in Yorkshire on Wednesday as intimate details about the couple's long-term love affair in the 1990s have been dramatized in the latest season of The Crown.

The royals' visit to the city of York coincided with the release of the fifth season of the hit Netflix drama which has sparked a heated debate in Britain in recent months with A-List stars such as Dame Judi Dench, and former prime minister Sir John Major denouncing the show, calling for disclaimers to be placed before each episode notifying viewers that the events depicted are not wholly factual.

The new season focuses on how Queen Elizabeth II and her family navigated the turbulent decade of the 1990s. It included the great fire at Windsor Castle, the official separation of Charles and Princess Diana, and Diana's bombshell BBC Panorama interview.

Perhaps most embarrassing for Charles and Camilla today is the recreation of the notorious "tampongate" scandal, where a private phone call, during which the prince joked about becoming the then-married Parker Bowles's sanitary product so he could "live inside her", was covertly recorded and sold to newspapers in 1992.

There were no signs of concern from the king and queen as they arrived at Micklegate Bar in York on Wednesday, the traditional greeting place for monarchs as they enter the walled city.

However, the royals were not universally welcomed, and a protestor who attempted to throw eggs at the king was arrested. The unidentified male is reported to have thrown three eggs at the monarch, all of which missed, before he was apprehended.

Daily Mail journalist Rebecca English tweeted from the scene that the protestor had screamed "the country was built on the blood of slavery."

The round of engagements in Yorkshire is the largest joint visit undertaken by Charles and Camilla since their tour of Great Britain following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. That this should occur on the day of The Crown's highly anticipated release "makes sense," royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told Newsweek.

"We will never know officially what influences the choice of engagements in the king and queen consort's diaries though sometimes it is obvious," he said.

"However, the fifth series of The Crown is highly controversial and it would only make sense to have an engagement on the day of its release, which is what has been arranged. The new series will not be helpful to the reputations of the king and queen consort as it is set in the 1990s, which was a nightmare for the royal family and it has a clear anti-monarchist agenda."

The show's creator Peter Morgan has faced criticism for holding anti-monarchy sentiments, something he admitted to in a 2017 interview with the Radio Times, however, he also stated that though he may have once considered himself anti-monarchy, this has changed.

"I came at it as completely anti-monarchist and I've turned around utterly," he said of The Crown, "I'm a royalist, now."

Like Charles and Camilla, Kate Middleton also made a public appearance on Wednesday, visiting the Colham Manor Children's Centre with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, of which she is the patron.

The Crown has not yet reached the time period where Kate—who has the new title of Princess of Wales—appears. It was confirmed though that she will make an appearance on the show after a casting call was issued in April for an actress to play a young Kate.

Buckingham Palace has not officially commented on The Crown or its content but various members of the royal family have acknowledged it over the years. They include Princess Anne, who voiced astonishment at the length of time it took for the hairstylists to perfect her signature style, and Queen Camilla, who invited actress Emerald Fennell to an event at Clarence House in March before joking that she could "stand in" for the royal if she "fell off her perch."

The royal who has spoken most explicitly about The Crown has been Prince Harry. In a 2021 interview with James Corden, the prince said: "It gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that. I'm way more comfortable with The Crown than I am seeing the stories written about my family, or my wife, or myself."

Season 5 of Netflix's The Crown is available to stream now.

Newsweek has reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment.

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