Claire Foy says she never received £200,000 back pay for The Crown's wage gap

Claire Foy has quashed reports that she received a six-figure sum in back pay for The Crown, after news broke that she was paid less than her co-star Matt Smith.

In April, the Mail reported that Foy had "received a bumper £200,000 in back pay" from the producers of the Netflix period drama, in which she played the Queen alongside Smith as the Duke of Edinburgh.

“That was what was reported, that I was back-paid," the Golden Globe-winning actress said this week. "I’ve never mentioned anything about it and neither have the producers.

"The fact that that is ‘fact’ is not quite correct," told Dubai-based news channel Al Arabiya. "Yes it’s Netflix, but it’s a British production company [Left Bank Pictures]." The Telegraph has contacted Left Bank Pictures for comment.

"It happened at the same time as it was coming out with a lot of other people that there was a lot of pay inequality across the board – in the music industry, in journalism, in every industry," Foy continued. It’s across the board that it became part of a bigger conversation, which is an odd place to find yourself in."

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Left Bank Pictures producer Suzanne Mackie apologised for the wage gap in March, telling reporters: “Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen.”

Explaining the disparity in their pay, Mackie said that former Doctor Who star Smith was offered a larger sum as he had a higher public profile at the time of casting.

A petition calling for Smith to donate the difference between their salaries to the anti-sexual harassment campaign Time's Up has garnered over 46,000 signatures.

The Crown cast and characters

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter in April, Smith suggested that the issue had been "resolved".

"Claire is one of my best friends and I believe that we should be paid equally and fairly and there should be equality for all," he said. "I support her completely and I’m pleased that it was resolved and they made amends for it because that’s what needed to happen."

For the forthcoming third series of The Crown, all the main characters have been re-cast, with older actors portraying the royal family in Sixties and Seventies. Olivia Colman will replace Foy as the Queen, and Outlander star Tobias Menzies will take on the role of Prince Philip, while Helena Bonham Carter will appear as Princess Margaret.