The Crown, Netflix’s hit drama series that chronicles the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II, has now recreated the infamous ‘Tampongate’ phone conversation.
For context, in January 1993, multiple tabloids published the transcript of a six-minute telephone conversation between then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. Hotlines were also set up so people could call and listen to the actual audio.
WATCH: The Crown season five trailer
During the call, Charles said, “I’ll just live inside your trousers” to Camilla before the pair joked about Charles coming back as “a pair of knickers” or a “Tampax [tampon]” in his next life.
Both Charles and Camilla repeatedly voiced how they yearned for and loved each other during the call too.
While the transcript was published in 1993 (a month after Charles had announced he and Princess Diana were separating), The Sunday Mirror reported that the conversation actually happened in 1989 – when Charles was still married to Diana and Camilla was married to Andrew Parker Bowles.
Of course, the leaked conversation – which was apparently recorded by an unknown amateur radio enthusiast who stumbled upon Charles and Camilla’s call while fiddling with his high-tech homing device – caused an instant scandal which circulated around the world and was dubbed both ‘Tampongate’ and ‘Camillagate’.
At the time, Charles and Camilla’s public images were severely damaged and many said that Tampongate proved Charles wasn’t fit to ever be king.
However, The Crown’s recreation of Tampongate, paints the private conversation between Charles and Camilla in an endearing, romantic light rather than a controversial one.
Dominic West, who portrays Charles in The Crown’s latest season, spoke about recreating Tampongate with Entertainment Weekly and even said that his own thoughts on the scandal had changed after filming.
“I remember thinking it was something so sordid and deeply, deeply embarrassing [at the time].”
“Looking back on it, and having to play it, what you’re conscious of is that the blame was not with these two people, two lovers, who were having a private conversation,” Dominic said.
“What’s really [clear now] is how invasive and disgusting was the press’s attention to it, that they printed it out verbatim and you could call a number and listen to the actual tape. I think it made me extremely sympathetic towards the two of them and what they’d gone through.”
You can watch season five of The Crown now on Netflix.
