Princess Diana biographer blasts 'Spencer' as horrifying and 'a lie'

"Spencer" divided royal fans and critics with its depiction of the late Princess Diana. There were those who called it emotionally moving but royal biographer Ingrid Seward finds it appalling.

The author of "Diana: An Intimate Portrait" said close friends of the late royal will be dismayed at the film. She claimed the princess herself "would be horrified at the way she's portrayed now."

"She would not want to be remembered as someone who was destructive towards the monarchy. She said to me that the monarchy was her sons' future so she would never try to destroy it," Seward told The Telegraph adding that Princess Diana "would be very sad that people think she and Charles never loved each other, that wasn't true."

"Spencer," from director Pablo Larraín who also helmed the 2016 movie "Jackie," labels itself not as a biopic but as a "fable from a true tragedy." It follows the four-day period of Christmas at Sandringham in 1991.

It shows very disturbing scenes of Princess Diana, portrayed by Kristen Stewart, battling bulimia and harming herself, which is thought by this point in her life she had already overcome. The movie also shows the royal as emotionally unstable who easily breaks down in tears in front of her young sons.

Make-up artist Mary Greenwell, who worked on the princess for her December 1991 Vogue cover, said the movie puts the late royal in a bad light. It depicts Princess Diana as "this kind of martyr" which she thinks "is wrong."

"She did amazing things, but she's misunderstood. All I'd say is that the portrayals you see now are not the best way to understand her. She wouldn't want to be on this pedestal with all this glory and fame," she said.

Seward had previously criticised "Spencer" for being "cruel" and "totally unnecessary" to portray Princess Diana in that way. She said that not only will friends of the late princess find it horrifying, but so will her sons Princes William and Harry. They will "be very angry and hurt" about it and will "find it horrible that their mother is being portrayed in such a huge movie this way."