The child actor playing Prince Harry in the new series of The Crown beat leukaemia as a toddler, it emerged today.
Will Powell was just 21 months old when he was diagnosed with the deadly form of cancer, which affects a person’s white blood cells.
The tot was forced to endure daily chemotherapy sessions that his parents, Andy and Michelle, administered at home over the next three and a half years.
Tough start: Will Powell, the child actor playing Prince Harry in the new series of The Crown beat leukaemia as a toddler after being diagnosed at just 21-months
And Will had a total of 27 operations before thankfully his cruel disease entered remission in July 2014 and he was finally given the all-clear.
Since then, the 13-year-old has become a kid “superstar” in his own right after landing the role of a young Prince Harry in the most recent series of The Crown on Netflix.
Will’s dad said throughout his lengthy treatment, he had “never complained” despite the years it took to overcome the horrific illness.
He said: ‘Throughout everything, he was a superstar – our little boy never complained once.’
Following his return to full fitness, Will’s mum Michelle revealed she was the person who helped him bag a sport on the landmark series about the royal family.
Heartbreaking: The tot (pictured) was forced to endure daily chemotherapy sessions that his parents, Andy and Michelle, administered at home over the next three and a half years
Starring role: Will plays a young Prince Harry in season 5 of Netflix drama The Crown (L-R: Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana, Will Powell as Prince Harry, Senan West as Prince William and Dominic West as Prince Charles)
She got in touch with producers after seeing a casting call for a young Prince William and told them while she didn’t have a William, her son would be a good fit for Harry.
Andy said Will was asked to provide a tape of himself before he got the incredible news he would be playing the young prince in the upcoming series, released in November.
He added the lad, who spent years on a hospital bed, had been “treated like a star from day one” as he travelled around in expensive cars and visited hotels.
Andy said: ‘Will was asked to provide a self-tape at first. He got to the last four, then two, and then finally he had an interview with the casting director via Skype.
Ordeal: Will had a total of 27 operations before thankfully his cruel disease entered remission in July 2014 and he was finally given the all-clear
‘The next day we got the news that he’d been successful! He was treated like a star from day one.
‘A big car picked him up and took him to London for a medical, and then myself and Will were taken to a hotel where we stayed for three days during which he filmed his first scenes.
‘Several other days of filming followed at different locations. He was hooked!’
Popular: Will is rapidly turning into a household name thanks to his role in The Crown (pictured here greeting photographers at the season 5 premiere in London)
Andy said seeing his son attend the premiere of Season five of The Crown, alongside other cast members including Imelda Staunton and Dominic West, was “incredible”
He added: ‘We were bursting with excitement. We had to wait until the evening of the launch day to watch as we were driving back from the premiere in London.
‘We binge watched until we had seen all of Will’s scenes.
The Crown Family Portrait: Back row – Senan West, Will Powell, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki, Theo Fraser Steele, Claudia Harrison, Sam Woolf and James Murray, Front row – Marcia Warren, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce and Lesley Manville
‘The premiere was incredible; we were treated like royalty! We mixed with the stars of stage and screen, and Will took it all in his stride. He even signed his first autographs!’
Season five of the Crown looks at the royal family between 1992 to 1997, depicting Charles’s divorce from Diana and the breakdown of Princess Anne and Prince Andrew’s marriages.
It also examines the catastrophic fire at Windsor castle and “tampongate”, which first brought Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles’s affair to light.
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