This year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been growing their communications team and making some really smart hires. First and foremost, they hired Meredith Maines from the political world – Maines started working for them in early March, and I swear I could see the difference immediately. In the months since Maines began working for them, they’ve added more qualified people to the team, and Meghan especially has been hiring for As Ever. Well, the Daily Mail is currently bum-clenching over another new hire: Emily Robinson, who was PR executive associated with the Netflix series The Crown. LMAO.
Of all the people they could have chosen, Prince Harry and Meghan have turned to the PR executive who was responsible for promoting Netflix’s controversial Royal Family drama The Crown to manage their public image. In an appointment that appears to twist the knife on the family feud, it can be revealed that Emily Robinson, announced last week as their new Director of Communications, was in charge of the program from series three to six.
Could there be a clearer indication of the distance from the Windsors – and that there is no intention to bridge that gap?
Robinson oversaw the global publicity for The Crown’s storylines including Harry in Nazi fancy dress, Diana’s controversial Panorama interview, and the ‘ghost’ Diana talking to the Queen. She was also reportedly on the team which fought against calls that the show adds a ‘fictional disclaimer’ on series five when it depicted Charles plotting against his mother and savoring the possibility of her abdicating, according to insiders.
It is widely believed that The Crown was a source of irritation, mortification, and offense to the Royal Family — and Robinson was the woman who promoted it as a prestige drama that depicted essential truths about the Monarchy.
Sources say she ruled publicity for The Crown ‘with an iron fist’ and was a ‘divisive’ figure at Netflix as a result. She left her job in April 2024, a few months after the final, most controversial, series aired. That one – series six – featured a sympathetic portrayal of Mohammed Al Fayed, father of Princess Diana’s boyfriend Dodi, hinting that he might have been the victim of a ‘racist’ establishment. Allegations that Mohammed Al Fayed was a sexual predator were circulating widely before the show aired, and have since apparently been confirmed in dozens of accounts from women who fell prey to the Harrods boss.
The show also imagined a chance encounter between Kate Middleton and Prince William in London before Princess Diana’s death. And it depicted Kate’s mother Carole Middleton as a pushy matchmaker, determined to thrust her daughter into the future king’s orbit — even if that meant making her attend St. Andrew’s University.
A source says: ‘In the circumstances, it’s almost beyond belief that Harry and Meghan would hire someone straight from The Crown.’
It is understood that the Sussexes are aware of Ms Robinson’s background on the Netflix show, but feel that it is only one show out of a number which she has been involved with.
Re: Mohammed Al Fayed, multiple things can be true all at once: al Fayed was a sexual predator AND he was treated abhorrently by the Windsors because the Windsors are racist. Al-Fayed wasn’t the only one who got a whitewashed treatment by The Crown either – hello, they barely touched the surface of Lord Mountbatten’s depravity. And The Crown pulled its punches on what Charles and Camilla did to Diana. The fact that Peter Morgan dared to even *imply* that Carole Middleton is a Machiavellian figure who masterminded William & Kate’s courtship was just funny though, because that’s what actually happened AND Morgan also pulled his punches there as well. Anyway, The Crown was one of Netflix’s biggest success stories and it won tons of awards, despite the regular hissy fits from the Windsors. It also means that Emily Robinson probably has a lot of experience dealing with the palace’s attempts to whitewash their own narratives, which is probably why she was chosen by the Sussexes.
Photos courtesy of Netflix/The Crown and Backgrid.
