‘The Crown’ Got One Major Thing Wrong About Princess Margaret’s Friend Dazzle
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According to MATH, about 90 percent of The Crown season 4 is dedicated to Princess Diana and Prince Charles drama—and the other 10 percent is a deep dive into the bleak yet fancy lives of the remaining royals, including our forever fave Princess Margaret.
As much as Margaret upholds the snobbery and elitism of the royals, she also spends this season realizing the depths of her own family’s cruelty—helped by her friend Derek “Dazzle” Jennings. Just like everyone else in the Netflix show, Dazzle was a real person—but The Crown got some things waaay wrong about their relationship. Here’s what ya need to know about the *real* Derek Jennings.
First Up, He Was Fully a Fixture in London Society
Just like we learned on The Crown, Dazzle’s circle of friends—including Princess Margaret—was surprised when he decided to join the Catholic church, but he remained a beloved part of London society. As RadioTimes notes, his obituary paints a pretty good picture of just how adored Dazzle was:
“The death of Father Derek Jennings deprives London’s religious life of one of its most eccentric comets…graced with the nickname of “Dazzle,” Jennings was ubiquitous. He would turn up at country house dinners, theatre festivals, auction houses, and modest student gatherings, always yearning to argue the toss, always with an admonitory finger at the ready, always loyal.”
And Yes, Margaret Had Feelings for Him
According to The Crown, Margaret had a crush on Dazzle—and judging from Noel Botham’s book Margaret: The Last Real Princess, this appears to be true:
“He was a great comfort to Princess Margaret but she was clearly attracted to him in other ways too. She became besotted by him. That is the only way to describe her behaviour. She used any excuse to place herself near him and used a variety of unsubtle ploys to let him know how impressed with him she was. She positively simpered at him. For various reasons, which of course she well understood, he felt unable to respond to her in that way. But he was able to answer her many questions about the Catholic Church, for he was always a superb teacher.”
So…What did The Crown Get Wrong?
Kind of a lot! For starters, there’s no evidence that Dazzle actively pressured Princess Margaret into converting to Catholicism. On top of that, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that he visited Margaret’s secret cousins on her behalf. But even more significantly…
Dazzle and Margaret Never. Stopped. Being. Friends.
The Crown shows Margaret ending her friendship with Dazzle, but Reverend Richard Coles wrote in his biography that the two remained close—and that Margaret even visited Dazzle on his deathbed. So yeah…gentle reminder that The Crown is fiction, not fact!
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