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This week sees the release of Spencer, a new biopic focusing on the late Princess Diana.
The film stars Kristen Stewart as the Princess of Wales, and is set over a three-day Christmas period towards the end of her marriage to Prince Charles.
While critics have lavished praise on the film – with many tipping Stewart for Oscar contention next year – some voices have criticised Spencer for taking liberties with the facts.
Last month, a number of Diana’s friends told The Telegraph that they believed the late royal would have been “horrified” by her representation in Spencer, and disputed several of the events depicted in the film.
However, Spencer’s director Pablo Larraín has said that he never intended the film to be entirely accurate, instead setting out to create a “fable” rooted in reality but taking artistic licence with its story.
You can read The Independent’s interview with the filmmaker here.
Here’s a brief rundown of the things Spencer got right and wrong. Some spoilers may follow...
Charles and Diana’s separation
Though an exact date is never fixed to the events of Spencer, it is assumed that the film takes place around Christmas day in 1991, shortly before Charles and Diana officially announced they were separating.
In the film, it is Diana who walks out on Charles, but in reality Diana claimed that Charles was the one who ultimately decided to end the marriage.
Several key story points in Spencer revolve around the proximity of Diana’s childhood home to Sandringham House, where she is staying with the royal family to celebrate Christmas.
In real life, Diana did grow up on land near the Queen’s holiday palace, however, the property was not believed to be abandoned at that point, as it is shown in the film, having been converted to a hospital after Diana’s family vacated.
Various biographers have described Diana’s intense unhappiness during visits to Sandringham house, and she was publicly open about her struggle with bulimia.
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One particularly distressing scene in Spencer sees Diana injure herself deliberately with a pair of wire cutters. However, Ingrid Seward, the editor of Majesty magazine, who knew and wrote about Diana, has said that this wouldn’t have happened during the Christmas period of 1991.
“That Christmas she was there with Fergie, she was pretty miserable and she wasn’t speaking to Charles, but she wasn’t cutting herself at that stage,” she told The Telegraph. “They’ve piled every bad thing into one weekend, which is taking poetic licence a little far.”
The ghost of Anne Boleyn
There is no evidence to suggest that Diana really witnessed the ghost of Henry VIII’s second wife, and science suggests that such a ghost did not exist in real life.
Instead, while inspired by reality, much of what unfolds is imagined. The movie's distributors, Neon and Topic Studios, state as much in their official description of the film, "Spencer
Spencer
Spencer is a 2021 historical psychological drama film directed by Pablo Larraín from a screenplay by Steven Knight. The film is about Princess Diana's existential crisis during the Christmas of 1991, as she considers divorcing Prince Charles and leaving the British royal family.
While the film is inspired by real-life figures, long-time rumours and real events, it is still very much a work of fiction, anchored by Larraín's experimental direction, which includes, among other things, hallucinations and a visit from Anne Boleyn.
So what actually is true in Spencer? While the specific events and dialogue from the film are made up, there are some elements to the film that are a fair representation of the royal life Princess Diana led. For one, the royals actually do spend Christmas at Sandringham every year.
In the movie, Maggie confesses to Diana that she's in love with her. While Diana had many dressers in real life who assisted her with personal care and her wardrobe, there is no evidence she had romantic overtures from them.
Spencer is a 2021 historical psychological drama film directed by Pablo Larraín from a screenplay by Steven Knight. The film is about Princess Diana's existential crisis during the Christmas of 1991, as she considers divorcing Prince Charles and leaving the British royal family.
Instead, while inspired by reality, much of what unfolds is imagined. The movie's distributors, Neon and Topic Studios, state as much in their official description of the film, "Spencer is an imagining of what might have happened during those few fateful days."
What were Princess Diana's last words? The firefighter on the scene of Princess Diana's accident revealed the last words she spoke before her death in an interview with The Independent. According to the firefighter, Xavier Gourmelon, the Princess of Wales asked: “My God, what has happened?”
Diana said she truly loved Charles and she married for love. Charles, however, may have had other motives, like producing children and therefore, heirs to The Throne.
The answer to the second part of that question is no. In an interview with Vulture, Spencer screenwriter Steven Knight confirmed that Maggie isn't based on a “specific” person but was inspired by memories Sandringham staff shared with him about Diana.
Not exactly. Hawkins' character is fictional, representatives for Spencer confirmed to them. in an email. Maggie, and her queer crush on Diana, is a bit of creative license, part of the film's purported “imagining” of what went down behind all those ornate and very often closed royal doors.
Diana became Princess of Wales aged 20 when she married Charles, then 32, on 29 July 1981. The wedding was held at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, a church that was generally used for royal weddings.
In an 1995 interview with the BBC, given after the couple's separation, Diana described bulimia as a “symptom of what was going on in my marriage.” She continued, "I didn't like myself, I was ashamed because I couldn't cope with the pressures. I had bulimia for a number of years, and that's like a secret disease...
In a breathless, headlong way, Stewart does a credible job, but she's perched on the edge of hysteria throughout and the upbeat ending fails to alter the impression that she and Larraín have delivered a one-dimensional portrait of a victim.
One of those things is an eating disorder. On Christmas Eve, the family has to get weighed before and after they eat. They do this to make sure that they gain three pounds; this came from King Edward VII in the 1900's. After Diana gets weighed she goes to the bathroom and throws up.
In a breathless, headlong way, Stewart does a credible job, but she's perched on the edge of hysteria throughout and the upbeat ending fails to alter the impression that she and Larraín have delivered a one-dimensional portrait of a victim. Content collapsed.
Diana's intrusive thoughts become shocking visions, and her anxiety materializes itself in a recurring hallucination of Ann Boleyn: a former queen of England who also married into royalty. Diana seems to see much of herself in Boleyn, who was beheaded by King Henry VIII when he became interested in another woman.
The answer to the second part of that question is no. In an interview with Vulture, Spencer screenwriter Steven Knight confirmed that Maggie isn't based on a “specific” person but was inspired by memories Sandringham staff shared with him about Diana.
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