'The Crown' Season 3 slammed by Queen's former press secretary as 'distasteful'

"The Crown" Season 3 has yet to air on Netflix but tongues are already wagging and eyebrows have been raised over the upcoming suggestive storylines released to the public. One such storyline implies that Queen Elizabeth II had an affair while married to Prince Philip. Her ex-press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, has lambasted this notion.

This storyline involves the Queen's obsessive interest in horses which prompts her to leave Buckingham Palace to visit stud farms in Kentucky and France. Her childhood friend, Lord Porchester, joins her on this journey since he too, is a fan of all things equestrian.

Following her mission to immerse herself in the latest equine technology, Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) returns home to Buckingham Palace and is greeted by her husband Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies). They exchange a "brief-but-chilly" conversation in which the prince expressed his curiosity at her real relationship with old "Porchie."

Prince Philip supposedly hints that his wife may have been unfaithful and the queen snaps at him saying, "If you have something to say, say it now. Otherwise, if you don't mind, I'm busy."

Fans of the British Royal Family have reportedly taken offense to this scene in "The Crown" Season 3, especially her highness' former press secretary. Arbiter called the implications of an affair "distasteful and totally unfounded."

"The Queen is the last person in the world to have ever considered looking at another man. Not only is this muckraking, this is gossip that's been washing around for decades," Arbiter told the Sunday Times.

Arbiter added that "The Crown" Season 3 only wants to sensationalise stories for ratings or viewership. He said that it is a show that is purely a work of fiction because no one knows about any of the conversations that members of the Royal Family exchange inside the palace. Thus, the stories told in the series have "no substance."

Aside from the implications of an affair involving Queen Elizabeth II, "The Crown" Season 3 also paints a sexually liberated version of Princess Anne (Erin Doherty). In the show, she supposedly talks freely about her active sex life and even has a scene where she is seen lounging in bed after having sex with her then-boyfriend Andrew Parker-Bowles.