Gillian Anderson Doesn’t Need ‘Crown’ Follow-Up on Charles, Kate’s Cancer

Gillian Anderson, who has starred in two projects about the royal family, doesn’t think King Charles III and Princess Kate Middleton’s respective cancer battles need to be serialized for the public.

“Oh, no. I think it probably ended at the right spot,” Anderson, 55, told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published on Thursday, March 28. “It was getting too close to present-day. It’s much easier when it was further in the past, and I think people didn’t have necessarily a direct relationship with the people on the screen.”

Anderson played former prime minister Margaret Thatcher on season 4 of The Crown. The Netflix drama, following Queen Elizabeth II’s historic reign as monarch, concluded in 2022 after six seasons. The final episodes introduced a then-teenaged Prince William as he met now-wife Kate at college in the early 2000s.

Anderson is now starring in a second royal-inspired project, Scoop, as British journalist Emily Maitlis. The upcoming Netflix film follows Charles’ brother Prince Andrew’s bombshell BBC interview about his sexual misconduct scandal. (Andrew, 64, has denied all allegations and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. He has also since stepped down from his post as a senior working royal and been stripped of his honorary titles.)

Despite starring in projects about the British royals, Anderson remains firm that Charles, 75, and Kate, 42, should not be the subject of a movie or TV show about their health struggles.

“It’s a moment where we understand they have asked for a bit of peace and quiet around what they’re experiencing and it feels like that’s the least we can do,” Anderson told ET. “I think in this instance with this latest double-whammy of news the least that people can do is give them a bit of a break and let the headlines settle down for them, to process this as the human beings that they actually are.”

Buckingham Palace confirmed in February that Charles had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer, which had been discovered after he underwent a corrective prostate procedure. The palace did not reveal if the king’s cancer is related to his prostate, but royal reporter Omid Scobie claimed it was not.

Kate revealed her own diagnosis one month later, similarly choosing not to share the type of cancer.

“In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous,” the Princess of Wales said in a video released by Kensington Palace on March 22. “The surgery was successful, however, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy, and I’m now in the early stages of that treatment.”

Both Charles and Kate have limited their public appearances as they undergo treatment. The king, for his part, has only undertaken a few audiences at the palaces and is expected to attend Easter mass on Sunday, March 31. Kate and William, 41, are reportedly not planning on attending the church services.