Leonora Knatchbull, whose life, illness, and funeral was depicted on the fifth season of The Crown, was the daughter of Norton and Penelope Knatchbull.
The Crown has been very popular since its initial premiere in 2016. Even so, the most recent season of the series did not get as many viewers as expected, but the reviews for the season are positive, despite the lower initial view count.
One of the stories portrayed in this fifth season is the story of young Leonora Knatchbull, who was the daughter of Norton and Penelope Knatchbull and who, unfortunately, passed away at the age of five.
How popular has season 5 of The Crown been?
The Crown premiered its first episode over six years ago and quickly became one of the most talked-about historical dramas on Netflix.
Although the initial launch of the show’s fifth season on 9 November 2022 was slightly underwhelming with just over 1 million viewers tuning in the watch the series in the United Kingdom, the viewers that have watched the newest season have had positive impressions so far.
Season five of The Crown has had glowing reviews so far, likely due to the fact that the events portrayed in this season are more well-known to the general public.
These positive reviews include an audience score of 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, an 8.5 score on Metacritic and scores above 7.5 for all of the season’s episodes on IMDb.
Whose daughter died in The Crown?
This fifth season of The Crown, like many of the others, has no shortage of sad and tragic stories dispersed in between the joyous occasions and ceremonies.
One such tragedy, which was a new story to some and a sad memory to others, is the death of young Leonora Knatchbull.
The main plot of the second episode of the fifth season of The Crown, titled “The System” centred around the life, illness, death, and funeral of this young girl, who died at the age of five in real life in 1991 from kidney cancer and Leonora Children’s Cancer Fund was also set up after her death, as it was portrayed on the show.
Leonora was the great-granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten and was the third child of Norton Knatchbull, the 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and Penelope Knatchbull, the Countess Mountbatten of Burma.
Leonora and her family’s ties to the royal family ran deep as Prince Philip was Norton’s godfather.
Moreover, Norton and Prince Charles were close friends throughout their childhoods and even well into adulthood, as viewers saw when the families vacationed together in the first episode of season five of The Crown.
What happened to Leonora in real life?
Many fans of The Crown were unfamiliar with Leonora’s short life story when the second episode of the fifth season first aired. Sadly, Leonora’s story in real life closely mimicked the one portrayed on the show.
Leonora first started exhibiting signs of illness while she was on a family trip in Majorca, Spain. However, following her kidney cancer diagnosis and treatment, she went into remission, which is how she is introduced in The Crown.
However, her cancer returned, and she eventually lost her 14-month battle with the disease on October 21, 1991.
According to all accounts, Leonora had a vivacious spirit and she attracted favour from many of the people around her, including Princess Diana, Prince Charles, and Prince Philip, who are depicted as being greatly affected by her death in The Crown.
How accurate was The Crown’s depiction of these events?
Although Leonora’s story was portrayed fairly accurately throughout the first two episodes of the fifth season of The Crown, some of the subplots were not completely accurate.
For instance, Princess Diana mentions on the show that she is Leonora’s godmother, but in reality, she was not. She was actually godmother to Leonora’s older sister, Alexandra.
The show also insinuates that Prince Philip and Leonora’s mother, Peggy, may have had an affair and although the press speculated about the same thing at the time, this affair has never been confirmed and the two remained close friends until Prince Philip’s death in 2021.
The Leonora Children’s Cancer Fund
Leonora’s parents were quite involved in the cancer support and charity circles even before her death, but they eventually established the Leonora Children’s Cancer Fund after her death to help support children who are sick or needy in all parts of the world.
Furthermore, the nurses who care for them and this fund later joined forces with the Edwina Mountbatten trust to form The Edwina Mountbatten and Leonora Children’s Foundation.
Leonora’s mother and sister support this charity, which created in her name, to this day.