The man at the centre of the infamous ‘toe-sucking’ photos with Fergie has finally spoken about The Crown using the scandal in season 5.
Her financial advisor at the time, John Bryan was dating Fergie when in 1992, photos were released of him sucking her toe while on holiday in the South of France, which caused a sensation.
It was a scandal that The Crown chose to include in its recently released fifth season, with Prince Andrew having to awkwardly break the news of the snaps to Queen Elizabeth.
Now Bryan has responded to it all being referenced in the show, and says he was inundated with messages when it first became apparent it would be mentioned.
‘I suddenly woke up in the morning [one day] and I had 600 messages on my phone, and I was going “what happened?” and it was The Crown,’ he said.
‘It has instigated a huge worldwide craze.’
In his first ever TV interview, Bryan was speaking to Lorraine Kelly, where he also discussed at length what happened on that holiday and how he was shocked when he heard just how much had been paid to secure the photographs.
Although The Crown was criticised for bringing up other scandals that occurred at the time, including ‘tampon gate’ and the Queen’s ‘anus horribilis’ speech, the retelling of this one just made for some awkward watching for audiences.
In episode four of this season, a red-faced Prince Andrew had to tell the monarch about the photos just before they are splashed out across the front page of a tabloid.
In the scene, Andrew (played by James Murray) approaches his dear mummy (Imelda Staunton) to share his marriage woes – including how his wife was photographed with her feet being caressed by her financial advisor.
In the brilliantly funny scenes, Prince Andrew reveals Fergie’s affair before begging the Queen for a divorce, stating that his wife has ‘had enough’.
The Crown is streaming on Netflix.
