Charles ‘DID talk to a Prime Minister about ruling as Prince Regent, but it wasn’t John Major,’ expert claims

King Charles “spoke to a prime minister about the prospect of ruling as regent”, but it was not John Major as The Crown claims, Princess Diana’s former press secretary has claimed.

Patrick Jephson worked closely with Prince Charles’ office while employed by Diana from 1988 to 1996.

Before filming for the fifth season of The Crown began, Patrick was approached by Netflix producers to share his experience working for the Royal House.

Writing for The Telegraph, the insider claims the latest episodes – which landed on the streaming service this morning – make it “hard to watch” and says some scenes were so real he “forgot to breathe”.

However, the significant storyline that sees Prince Charles plotting to oust the Queen with John Major is one area where Patrick claims the writers got it spectacularly wrong.

The first episode of the series is set in 1991, amid speculation about the future of the monarchy and Charles’ constitutional role.

During the hour-long episode, Prince Charles – played by Dominic West – sees a Sunday Times opinion poll suggesting there was public support for the Queen’s abdication, leading him to reign.

The former press officer writes: ‘We later see Charles discuss the ballot and a possible regency with the Prime Minister.

“Again, that’s not strictly accurate: the discussion actually took place with a former prime minister.”

However, the insider fails to reveal which prime minister the royal allegedly held the meeting with.

Crown authors suggest Charles believed his mother, then 65, was repeating Queen Victoria’s mistakes by refusing to step down for a younger heir.

Sir John last month told the Mail on Sunday the meeting never happened and called the scene a ‘barrel of malevolent nonsense’.

A source said: “All one-on-one conversations you see on screen are pure fiction and some scenes were created entirely for dramatic and commercial purposes with no regard for the truth.” People should boycott it.

Additionally, Princess Diana’s former press secretary revealed that the writers of The Crown also fabricated a confrontation between the late royal and the Queen where she confesses to giving an interview to Panorama.

In reality, Patrick said he was the one who broke the news to the Queen’s press office – moments before they were contacted by the BBC.

Contrary to The Crown’s dramatization, the insider claimed Diana ‘didn’t muster up the courage at all’ to speak to the monarch about the explosive interview and instead sat next to Patrick in the car as he called the monarch’s press secretary.

In another scene, Prince Charles and Princess Diana are pictured arguing fiercely on their “second honeymoon” in the Mediterranean in 1991 after the late royal suggested they go shopping.

While the dramatization shows the couple fighting over the family vacation, the the expert claims that this exchange actually took place two years prior in front of their hosts during a royal tour of the Middle East.