Actress Jenna Coleman has brushed off speculation about her friendship with Prince Harry.
The former Doctor Who star, 30, who plays a young Queen Victoria in a new ITV period drama, and the royal were pictured “looking flirty” at a polo match last year.
Jenna Coleman (Ian West/PA)
Jenna was asked on Good Morning Britain whether she had met Harry to carry out research on the royal family for the TV role.
Prince Harry (Peter Byrne/PA)
“No, he’s a friend of mine,” the star replied.
And the former Emmerdale actress laughed politely when presenter Kate Garraway told her: “We want him married off!”
Jenna told Good Morning Britain that the eight-part Sunday night drama, which begins this weekend, did not shy away from steamy scenes featuring Victoria and Albert, played by Tom Hughes.
Tom Hughes and Jenna Coleman are Albert and Victoria (Ian West/PA)
“It’s not something we have shied away from at all. I think to understand their relationship and to understand how they operate with one another, their chemistry, their passion, their love for one another was extremely strong yet turbulent,” she said.
“In order to understand them as a dynamic and how they operate you have to have that passion,” she added.
The drama’s writer Daisy Goodwin has previously said audiences may be surprised to meet an 18-year-old Victoria – who she said was most like Prince Harry.
“I think most people think of Victoria as an old bag in a bonnet don’t they? That sourpuss with a crown who never smiled,” she said.
“But I’ve tried to show that Victoria is actually, at the beginning of her reign, a bit of a party girl. She loved dancing, she liked men, she had sex, she’s more like Prince Harry than she was like Elizabeth II.
“Victoria came to the throne looking for action.”
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