Friends of the royals gave them legal advice on 'The Crown' and say they could sue Netflix over how they're portrayed, report says

• Friends of the royals have sought legal advice over "The Crown," The Sun reports.
• The legal advice was passed on to the royal family, according to the British newspaper.

Friends of the royal family have sought legal advice over the latest season of "The Crown," The Sun's Matt Wilkinson and Clemmie Moodie report.

The friends of the royals - who were unnamed in the report - told the British newspaper they were advised that they could sue the historical drama series over the way in which they have been portrayed, according to the British newspaper.

They consulted the Queen's preferred law firms, Farrer & Co and Harbottle & Lewis, and passed on the legal advice to the royal family, the report added.

"Friends of the Royal Family sought legal advice," one unnamed source told The Sun. "The advice they received would also apply to the Royal Family."

"Although this is not direct legal advice given to the Queen and her family - they have been made aware of this advice," the source added.

Representatives for Buckingham Palace and Netflix declined to comment when contacted by Insider.

The Sun's report comes after a friend of Princess Diana's quit her role as a consultant on the show over what she believed to be a mishandled storyline, The Sunday Times reported.

Jemima Khan told the publication that she asked that her writing credits were removed from the show's fifth season because Diana's story wasn't handled "as respectfully or compassionately as I had hoped."

Khan didn't elaborate on which storylines she had an issue with. The Sunday Times reports that she worked with the show's creator Peter Morgan on storylines surrounding Diana's love life after separating from Prince Charles, her visits to Pakistan, and her BBC "Panorama" interview.

There has been speculation over the royals' reactions to the show, and whether they had ever watched it. Prince Harry became the first immediate member of the royal family to say he had watched it during an interview with James Corden earlier this year.

"They don't pretend to be news. It's fictional," Harry said. "But it's loosely based on the truth. Of course, it's not strictly accurate, of course not, but loosely it gives you a rough idea about what that lifestyle, the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that."

Filming of the historical drama's fifth season is currently underway and is set to air on Netflix in November 2022.