Prince William Makes Imelda Staunton a Dame After She Played Queen Elizabeth on ‘The Crown’

Prince William made actress Imelda Staunton — who portrayed his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, in the final seasons of Netflix’s The Crown — a Dame in a moment of art meeting life.

On Nov. 12, the Prince of Wales, 42, made Staunton a Dame Commander of the British Empire at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle. Among the other notables receiving honors was Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran, who said he was “truly beyond thrilled and surprised” to be recognized for his services to music and charity, according to The Daily Mail.

Staunton, for her part, received honors for her services to drama and charity. She earned both an Emmy and a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of the late Queen in seasons 5 and 6 of The Crown, which ran from 2016 until its sixth and final season concluded in 2023.

“I feel genuinely humbled to be recognized on the same level as the amazing actresses, all the great Dames, who have led the way for so many of us,” Staunton, 68, said upon receiving her damehood as part of the King’s Birthday Honors in June. 

“It is their talent, dedication, wit and energy that have paved the way for us all and have set the standards to which we all aspire,” she continued.

She added that she was “proud” to be a part of the industry as “theater, film and television are essential to our wellbeing, stand at the heart of our culture and are admired throughout the world.”

In addition to her work as an actress, Staunton’s charity work — including service as an ambassador for Crisis, a homelessness charity, and supporting the international disaster relief charity ShelterBox — was recognized.

Being named to the King’s Birthday Honors by Queen Elizabeth’s son “was a huge privilege,” Staunton said, per The Sun. Of playing the late monarch — who died on Sept. 8, 2022 at age 96 — “That was two years of filming, and I absolutely adored it,” she said. “It was, of course, devastating when Her Majesty died — we were filming as well. It was tricky.”

As the sixth season premiered late last year, Staunton said that she was “inconsolable” when she heard on set that Queen Elizabeth had died, breaking down in tears, she said at the time.

“Then, weirdly, in the schedule I had 10 days off, which was the 10 days of mourning, and I was inconsolable that night,” Staunton said. “I would have been, of course, sad, but obviously I think I was fueled by living with her for so long.”

Staunton played the Queen from the years between 1991 and 2010, following Claire Foy and Olivia Colman.

“I had my 10 days, and I didn’t want to watch a lot of things, but I did watch the funeral,” she said.

Speaking on BBC Radio’s Woman’s Hour, Staunton spoke about the “extra challenge” that came with playing the most recent iteration of the Queen.

“I think my sort of extra challenge, as if I needed it, is that I’m now doing the Queen that we’re a little more familiar with,” she said. “With Claire Foy, it was almost history, and now I’m playing one that people could say, ‘She doesn’t do that,’ ‘She’s not like that’ — and that is my personal bête noire,” she continued.

After the show wrapped in December 2023, Staunton told NPR about what she felt the series’ legacy would be: “Well, I think that we were in a place of television that was a huge experiment,” she said. “I think the experiment paid off. And to be part of something that has used so many actors, so many crew members, that we all wanted the standard to be as high as it possibly could at every minute of every single day was a great thing to be part of. And I feel so proud and grateful to have been there.”

For his part, Prince William (as well as his wife, Kate Middleton) didn’t watch The Crown, according to royal biographer Robert Hardman. In his book The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, he quoted a source close to the Prince of Wales as saying he “rolls his eyes when people say that ‘It’s just drama.’ Yet he will not give it any greater publicity or complaining. He doesn’t like the idea of being seen as a complainer all the time.”

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When Colman — who played William’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth in seasons 3 and 4 of the show — asked the prince if he watched The Crown at a Buckingham Palace reception, she admitted on The Graham Norton Show that it “didn’t go very well,” she said, adding that “His answer was a firm, ‘No.’ But he was very charming and very lovely.”