Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister in 1979 as Elizabeth adjusts to a forceful new government. Their weekly meetings expose differences over the Commonwealth and sanctions against apartheid-era South Africa, while the Falklands War brings a military victory and a public test of Thatcher’s leadership. At home, Diana Spencer enters Charles’s life, and their whirlwind courtship becomes a royal wedding presented to the public as a fairy tale. The season follows the strain beneath that image as the couple struggle to build a marriage.
Diana gives birth to William and Harry, but she and Charles remain pulled in different directions. Charles continues his relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, and Diana’s loneliness and bulimia worsen as court life closes around her. Philip offers advice from his own experience as an outsider in the family, while Elizabeth repeatedly urges the couple to protect the marriage. The strain shows in their public appearances and private arguments, and by the final episode Charles wants to discuss separation after learning Diana has resumed her relationship with riding instructor James Hewitt.
The political and family crises converge in 1990. Geoffrey Howe’s resignation helps trigger a leadership challenge, and Thatcher leaves office after her Conservative colleagues withdraw support; Elizabeth later recognizes her with the Order of Merit. Diana, despite Charles’s objections, travels alone to New York, where crowds welcome her and she finds a public role that is her own. The season closes with the Waleses still married but deeply unhappy, and the royal family posed together with Diana visibly at the edge of the group.