Friends of Prince Charles launched a scathing assault on Netflix’s popular drama The Crown, accusing the show’s creators of ‘trolling on a Hollywood budget.’

The fourth and most contentious season focuses on the events of the royal family’s lives between 1979 and 1990, particularly Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s tumultuous relationship.

The series portrays the couple’s extramarital affairs as well as Diana’s battle with an eating problem. Some of the scenes are so gruesome that each episode begins with a trigger warning.

Some of the Prince’s closest allies have accused Netflix of profiting on the Royal Family’s suffering, claiming that in its warped version of events, “fiction is presented as fact.”

“This is a drama and entertainment for commercial ends being made with no regard to the actual people involved, who are having their lives hijacked and exploited,” Royal insiders say in the piece, which has been extensively discussed in the British media.

‘In this case, it’s dragging up things that happened during very difficult times 25 or 30 years ago without a thought for anyone’s feelings. That isn’t right or fair, particularly when so many of the things being depicted don’t represent the truth.’

The portrayal of a heartless and self-serving Charles meeting and marrying an innocent Diana while continuing his romance with the then-married Camilla Parker-Bowles in the fourth season of the popular drama has caused such outrage.

‘The new series paints the Prince and Duchess in a very unflattering light but at least at the start of reality shows like The Only Way Is Essex they admit that some scenes have been invented for entertainment,’ a Palace source said.

‘There is no sense of telling carefully nuanced stories – it’s all very two-dimensional. This is trolling with a Hollywood budget. The public shouldn’t be fooled into thinking this is an accurate portrayal of what really happened.’

Fresh questions have also been made over Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s choice to negotiate a Netflix contract earlier this year. The duo plans to create documentaries, films, and children’s programming.

‘There are raised eyebrows about Harry taking millions from the company that’s behind all this,’ said an insider. ‘After all where do much of Netflix’s profits come from? The Crown.’

The response of royalists in the United Kingdom to the new season has prompted criticism of the program for “fooling viewers into thinking that the show is an accurate portrayal of what really happened.”

Meanwhile, despite the event being promised in the season four trailer, The Crown fans were unhappy that the series did not show Charles and Diana being married.

The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, is “none too pleased,” according to The Express. “He feels that both his parents are being exploited and being presented in a false, simplistic way to make money.”

The Mail on Sunday also reports that earlier episodes enraged the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. During the second season, Philip was portrayed having a romance with a ballerina and, in the third, neglecting his mother, Princess Alice, when she moved to Buckingham Palace in 1967. Neither of these things occurred.

The Crown, which is set to run for a total of six seasons, has followed the life of the queen from soon before her coronation in 1952.

Friends of Prince Charles pointed out what they claim are major errors in the new series as he marked his 72nd birthday. Scenes from their wedding rehearsal at St Paul’s Cathedral show Charles verbally assaulting his wife and Diana addressing the Queen and the Prince of Wales about his affair.

In the current season, British actress Olivia Colman reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth II, as she did in season three, while actor Josh O’Connor takes on the role of Prince Charles and newcomer Emma Corrin takes on the role of Princess Diana.