EXCLUSIVE: Bob Hawke’s widow Blanche d’Alpuget reveals why she has NEVER watched the ‘vulgar and inaccurate’ Netflix series The Crown starring Richard Roxburgh as the PM
Bob Hawke’s widow Blanche d’Alpuget says she hasn’t watched The Crown, despite her late husband being featured in the controversial Netflix series.
The 77-year-old spoke to Daily Mail Australia about the show, in which the former prime minister is played by Australian actor Richard Roxburgh, while attending the Women of the Future Awards in Sydney on Wednesday.
Ms d’Alpuget said that while she hasn’t watched The Crown herself, she understands the portrayal of Hawke was ‘very vulgar and inaccurate’.
Shunned: Bob Hawke’s widow Blanche d’Alpuget says she hasn’t watched The Crown, despite her late husband being featured in the controversial Netflix series. Pictured in March 2006
‘I have never watched it,’ she said. ‘I never have. I turn off the television at eight o’clock.
‘I know it was vulgar. Very vulgar, and very inaccurate.’
The fourth season of the royal drama focused on the 1980s to 1990s, and the sixth episode was about Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ 1983 tour of Australia.
The then-popular Labor PM, played by Roxburgh, was portrayed as an ardent republican who loathed the monarchy and hoped the royal visit would inspire Australians to vote for an Australian head of state.
Starring role: In the fourth season of the Netflix series The Crown, Bob Hawke (right) was played by Australian actor Richard Roxburgh (left)
The episode ‘Terra Nullius’ depicted an ABC interview with Hawke in which he said Australia wouldn’t have a ‘Pom’ as a head of state for much longer.
‘You wouldn’t put a pig in charge of a herd of prime beef cattle – even if it did look good in a twin set and pearls,’ he said in front of a laughing studio audience.
While this interview did take place, Hawke never used those words to describe the Queen, nor did he ever speak so dismissively about the monarchy.
Opinion: Ms d’Alpuget spoke out about her late husband’s portrayal in The Crown at the Women of the Future Awards in Sydney on Wednesday. Pictured with designer Jenny Kee (left) and Kerri-Anne Kennerley (right)
Ms d’Alpuget is the second wife of Hawke, the longest-serving Labor Prime Minister of Australia. They married in 1995 and were together until he died in 2019 at the age of 89.
The author also said on Wednesday she’d completed her treatment after being diagnosed with breast cancer early last year.
‘The treatment finished seven weeks ago,’ she said.
After undergoing a ‘breast reconstruction’, Ms d’Alpuget said she was still recovering and had taken time out to allow her body to heal.
‘I’ve taken this year off work. Last year I was too sick to work. I’ve taken this year off work, just to look after my body,’ she explained.
She also said moving forward she has to have a consultation with her surgeon ‘once every six months and have blood tests’.
‘It’s very nice to be on the other side of it. It’s absolutely wonderful to think you’re never going to have chemotherapy again,’ she added.
Progress: ‘It finished seven weeks ago,’ Ms d’Alpuget said of her cancer treatment. Pictured with late husband Bob Hawke at a theatre premiere in Sydney in January 2013