“The Crown” had a fan in Queen Elizabeth II.
Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip in his younger days in the hit Netflix series, revealed in a new interview that Her Royal Majesty watched the show before her death.
“I met the now-King Charles [III]”I told him he had fantastic shoes… and then I met Harry at the Polo once,” the 39-year-old actor recalled during his performance on Thursday’s show ‘Today’.
“He walked up to me and said ‘grandpa’ because he had watched the show,” he added. “I heard the Queen saw it, yes, and she was apparently watching it on a projector on a Sunday night.”
While the British royal – who died last week at age 96 – was reportedly tuned in to the series, her late husband wasn’t much of a fan.
“I know Philip definitely didn’t” [watch]Smith said of the Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April before his 100th birthday.
“A friend of mine sat next to him with [a] once ate and he asked him. Actually, I think Philip asked my friend if he made ‘The Crown’,” he said.
“My friend couldn’t resist. Towards the end of the meal he said, “Philip, I have to ask, have you seen ‘The Crown’?” And [Philip] apparently turned to him [and said]’Do not be ridiculous.'”
Smith previously revealed that at one point he also met Prince William, who offered him some acting tips.
“I met [William] very briefly in a lineup at the polo,” he said during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in 2016. “The lady who did the lineup said, ‘This is Matt and he’s going to play Prince Philip.’ And then she said, ‘Do you have any advice for him?’”
The ‘House of Dragon’ star continued: ‘And then I thought, ‘God, I’m dying.’ All [William] said was: ‘Legend. He is an absolute legend.’”
Meanwhile, Prince Harry has admitted to watching several episodes.
“They don’t pretend to be news. It’s fictional,” the 37-year-old Duke of Sussex said during his appearance on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” in February.
“But it’s loosely based on the truth. Of course it is not strictly accurate. … It gives you a rough idea of what that lifestyle is, what the pressure to put duty and service over family and everything else is, what can come from that.”
Harry continued: “I feel much more comfortable with ‘The Crown’ than seeing the stories written about my family or my wife [Meghan Markle] or me because it’s the difference between [‘The Crown’] is obviously fiction, take it as you please but this is reported as fact because you are supposedly news. I really have a problem with that.”
“The Crown” stopped production on the show’s sixth season shortly after the Queen died, out of respect for the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
“‘The Crown’ is a love letter to her and I have nothing to add to it for now, just silence and respect,” creator Peter Morgan told Deadline in a statement last week. “I expect that we will also stop filming out of respect.”
The upcoming season will feature “Harry Potter” alum Imelda Staunton as the late queen, taking over from Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, who played her in previous seasons.