Dominic West of ‘The Crown’ Forbade His Son from Reprising His Role as Prince William in Season Six for One Heartbreakingly Poignant Reason

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published 4 December 2023

In season five of Netflix’s The Crown, Dominic West—who plays Prince Charles—didn’t have to flex his acting muscle too hard when it came to his interactions with Prince William: his own real-life son, Senan West, played the role last season. But the younger West did not return to reprise his role as William for season six—and there’s an incredibly poignant reason.

It was actually Dominic West himself who stopped his son from continuing on in the role, The Daily Mail reports, because he couldn’t bear to act out the scene in which Charles has to tell William that his mother, Princess Diana, has been killed in a car accident in Paris. Though Senan was invited back by The Crown showrunners, ultimately his father said no.

“I didn’t fancy doing the scene at Balmoral, telling a boy his mother has died,” West told the Radio Times. “They invited Senan back because he did such a good job, but I did slightly balk at that. It was unfair of me, because he did want to do it.”

Senan appeared in the final episodes of season five as a “slightly older” William in his early teenage years; his appearance in the Netflix hit was his first ever acting role. Denying nepotism claims, West told Town & Country that the decision to include his son was a result of a casting agent telling him that the show was struggling to fill the William role. When Senan did get the part, his father told him “Do you know how lucky you are? Bloody lucky!”

He also revealed that he told his son to “listen, enjoy, and learn” from the esteemed actors that surrounded him as he filmed the series, including Imelda Staunton, who played Queen Elizabeth; Senan’s first scene is with her, as William is seen having tea with his grandmother.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.