Were Lord "Porchie" Porchester and Queen Elizabeth II Ever More Than Friends?
Season 3 of Netflix's The Crown premiered on November 17, with a fourth season set to stream in 2020.
The show follows the middle-aged years of Queen Elizabeth II, seeing her through tragedies such as Aberfan, and the shock of employing a Soviet spy.
In episode 5 we see the queen's close relationship with Lord "Porchie" Porchester—but was their relationship something more?
While season 3 of The Crown didn't shy away from depicting the extramarital affairs between Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, it edged on the side of caution when looking at possible infidelity in another royal marriage.
During the season's fifth episode, "Coup," Queen Elizabeth II (Olivia Colman) has a handful of one-on-one moments with close friend and horse racing manager Lord Porchester (John Hollingworth). The queen and her companion are enjoying a getaway in Kentucky—strictly on horse business. But there are a few subtle moments between the two that make you think, "I wonder...?"
"On days like today, in places like this, in company like this, you get a glimpse of what [not being queen] might have been like," Colman's Queen Elizabeth II tells Porchie over dinner. "The unlived life and how much happier it would have made me."
To feed our curiosity, we took a closer look at the real Lord Porchester in an attempt to see if he and the queen were in fact more than friends—as The Crown hinted.
Okay, so who exactly was Lord Porchester?
First, let's start out with his real name: Henry George Reginald Molyneux Herbert, a.k.a., the 7th Earl of Carnarvon. His courtesy title was Lord Porchester, and the name "Porchie"—which we hear him referred to as on The Crown—was an affectionate childhood nickname that the queen used.
Lord Porchester was a lifelong friend of Her Majesty, and therefore a member of the royal family's exclusive inner circle. He shared the queen's great passion for horses and was her racing manager for 32 years until his death in 2001 at the age of 77.
“My father had a photographic memory for bloodlines," said Lord Porchester's son, Geordie, according to The Telegraph. "He and the queen had a similar passion for every aspect and detail of breeding. They often had quite lively discussions about which stallion a mare should go to, or which race. It was a key part of their week.”
Fun fact? According to Town & Country, his family's Highclere Castle estate serves at the main setting in Downton Abbey.
Did Porchie and Queen Elizabeth II actually have... a"thing?"
As discussed, The Crown insinuates that the monarch and Lord Porchester's relationship at least had definite romantic potential.
So could the royal actually have considered life with Porchie in reality? The short answer is definitely not. The queen's former press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, told the Sunday Times as much in a curt statement in early November. He called the rumors of the affair "very distasteful and totally unfounded."
Arbiter continued: "The queen is the last person in the world to have ever considered looking at another man. The Crown is a fiction. No one knows any conversation between members of the royal family, but people will tell the story the way they want to and sensationalize it.”
And knowing that Her Majesty wasn't 100 percent happy with the show's second season, this latest comment doesn't bode well for her season 3 support.
Lord Porchester's son also confirmed that both his father and the queen were totally in the friend zone. And it all came down to their shared love of the equestrian life.
"It was a very equal friendship ranging over many interests,” he said. “They were from the same generation. They had been through the war. They shared a great love of the countryside and wildlife as well as horses. Whether they were walking at Sandringham, Highclere, or in Scotland, it was always a great obsession."
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