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.
