There was a time not so long ago when the greatest threat to King Charles was Camilla Parker Bowles.
Yet with Her Majesty’s blessing for Camilla to become queen consort when Charles is crowned king, you could now say that the Duchess of Cornwall is one of the monarchy’s greatest success stories—and a vital pillar of strength for its future. The monarchy looks very different from how it did just 10 years ago at the diamond jubilee. Following the death of Prince Philip, the Sussexes standing down, and the spectacular fall of the Duke of York, the royal lineup is somewhat depleted.
Yet here’s Camilla, whose metamorphosis from mistress to “my darling wife,” as Charles calls her, has been remarkable—a triumph matched perhaps only by Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, who transformed himself from mistrusted German outsider to revered royal.
Today, Camilla is the second most senior woman in the royal family after the queen, who once referred to Camilla as that “wicked woman.” Now the monarch enjoys a warm and close relationship with her daughter-in-law and a bond forged over their mutual love of dogs and horses. Her Majesty’s announcement that it was her “sincere wish” for Camilla to become queen laid to rest years of endless speculation about Camilla’s title when Charles accedes. It was the queen’s way of not only securing a smooth transition for her son’s reign but of showing her support for Camilla, who has been a devoted family member since her wedding to the Prince of Wales in 2005.
Back then, the question of Camilla’s title was more inflammatory. Through marriage she was technically the Princess of Wales, but amid fears of a public backlash, Clarence House announced she would be known as the Duchess of Cornwall and, once Charles became king, princess consort.
“There was no inevitability about the duchess becoming queen consort,” says Patrick Harrison, who worked in the press office at Clarence House for 14 years and coordinated media plans for Charles and Camilla’s wedding. “I’m personally thrilled for her because she has worked so hard and really hasn’t put a foot wrong. She would say, ‘I do it because I love the boss, it’s my job to be there by his side,’ but she has done so much more than that. She is absolutely devoted to the Prince of Wales and to the institution and takes her royal role and duties incredibly seriously. She understands the benefits and the challenges that go with that.”
Over the years there have been many challenges. Charles and Camilla’s love affair—which Princess Diana blamed for the breakdown of her marriage—seemed doomed. Despite a palace spin campaign to pave the way for Charles and Camilla, there was resistance to their union, and the campaign took a long time to claim success. To many Britons, Camilla would long be the “third person” in the Waleses’ marriage, as Diana called her in the infamous BBC interview. Meanwhile, Camilla was also a mother trying to shelter two teenage children from ruinous tabloid headlines.
Her family is her nucleus—she is extremely close to her son, Tom, daughter, Laura, and five grandchildren. She remains on good terms with her ex-husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, and counts her sister, Annabel, as her best friend. “She has a very close and supportive family and a close group of old friends,” says her nephew Ben Elliot. “She adores her husband, children, and grandchildren.”
Her “family first” motto has rubbed off on Charles, who speaks to Prince William almost every day on the phone and is closer than ever to his mother. Behind palace doors, sources say, the duchess has also been instrumental in trying to heal the fractured relationship between Charles and Prince Harry.
“The situation with Harry was upsetting for all the family, and we mustn’t forget that they are a family,” says a friend. “I know that Camilla did her best and was a tremendous sounding post and support for Charles, who was deeply troubled.”
This friend points out what a difficult road Camilla has had with the press, and how she was ostracized by the family. “She threw a hand of friendship out to Harry and Meghan at various points. When Meghan was going through a difficult time with her own father, Camilla helped navigate things. It was Camilla who told Charles that walking Meghan up the aisle was the right thing to do. She’s a very family-oriented woman, and she really wanted to help.”
Camilla’s close friend and Gloucestershire neighbor Jilly Cooper, an author, says the duchess has an “incredible” capacity to take on duties. “She always did a lot for charity, but now people are appreciating just how much she does. I think Camilla has climbed Everest in the way she has turned things around. People are now seeing her for who she is. A kind, caring, and fun person.”
And then there is the support of the queen. At the diamond jubilee celebrations in 2012, the two women rode side by side in a royal carriage procession, which reflected both Camilla’s seniority and her closeness to the monarch. The two have only grown closer.
“I think the queen has always been very fond of Camilla,” says Penny Junor, author of The Duchess. “There was a great misconception before Charles and Camilla married that the queen didn’t like her and wanted her out of sight and out of the prince’s life. She did want Camilla out of the prince’s life—not because she didn’t like her personally but because she could see huge damage being done to the monarchy. But they have, on a personal level, always liked one another and have a great deal in common. Now she sees that Camilla has been a loyal and faithful support to Charles, and she’s very grateful to her for that.”
Publicly, the queen has bestowed every honor on Camilla, from the Royal Family Order, given at the queen’s discretion as a reward for service, to the Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. The Duchess of Cornwall is also now a member of the Privy Council, the Queen’s most senior advisory body and which plays an important part in the accession ceremonies of a new sovereign. In 2021 it was announced that Camilla was to be invested into the Order of the Garter, the greatest accolade of all. According to another friend of the duchess, the garter was “the one thing she really wanted, because it is such an enormous privilege. Camilla was absolutely thrilled about it.” Says historian Hugo Vickers: “Everybody wants the garter. It was the Princess of Wales’s secret wish too.”
According to her friend Jude Kelly, who founded the women empowerment organization Women of the World, Camilla “is not someone trying to push herself forward, but it has become clearer and clearer that because she sits in a place of power where the limelight is on her, she is using that to speak about other people’s situations.”
“She’s great at putting people at ease, particularly when they think, Well, who am I to meet HRH? They’re the people she seeks out and asks them about themselves,” says Kelly. “She’s very inclusive in that way. Of course, she’s not an ‘ordinary’ woman, in the sense that she is going to be the queen consort, but she is totally in touch with the ordinary.”
Amid the dire straits of the pandemic, some of Camilla’s most important work came to light, including her commitment to improving literacy and helping the elderly through her work with the charity Silver Stories. She also put the spotlight on domestic violence as patron of the charity SafeLives, which supports women who have been abused. Elisabeth Carney-Haworth, cofounder of Silver Stories and Operation Encompass, which advocates for children who experience domestic abuse, says the future queen consort has made sure not to be silent around the stigma.
“I can only imagine that being asked to stay there could feel very isolating and frightening for you and your family. It may mean spending more time with the person who is harming you,” Camilla wrote in one Instagram message that shared resources and a help line for victims. “If this is your situation, or you are worried about someone else, I want you to know that you are not alone.”
She also shared reading lists with the nation (The Remains of the Day and A Gentleman in Moscow ranked) and set up a book club on Instagram called the Reading Room. Camilla wanted to actually help people. “She knew that people living with cancer were really being affected during that first lockdown. She wanted to understand how we were able to help them and how we as a charity were coping,” says Dame Laura Lee, chief executive of the cancer charity Maggie’s, of which Camilla is patron.
Since COVID restrictions were lifted, the duchess has been keen to resume royal duties. She and Charles were the first senior royals to go overseas, on an official tour to Jordan and Egypt. Hairdresser Geraldine Mancini gave the duchess a feathery new cut, and alongside the Queen of Jordan, she dazzled in pretty day dresses and tailored coats.
“The duchess has really found her style,” says Fiona Clare, Camilla’s dresser, who has been designing for her nearly 10 years. “I wouldn’t say she is into clothes, but she has found her niche. She is very elegant and she knows what works. Her staples are dresses, frock coats, and great hats. She’s got a wonderful core team around her with people she trusts and knows will make her look good.”
While she makes the job look fun and breezy, Camilla finds the overseas travel hard work. She is low-maintenance, traveling with a small entourage that includes a private secretary, personal assistant, dresser, and hairdresser. She often does her own makeup and travels lighter than her husband, but she doesn’t enjoy flying and can’t bear the heat. She sometimes struggles to keep up with the workaholic prince, who doesn’t break for lunch.
“From very early on she clearly said, ‘I am not going to go at the same pace as the boss,’ ” says Harrison. “ ‘I’m not going to do five engagements a day without any lunch and then do two engagements in the evening. It’s just…you know, the boss can do that. I can’t.’ ”
Charles is keen to make sure that his wife doesn’t burn out. Their marriage is very much an equal partnership founded on a deep love and a mutual understanding. “They love and respect each other and laugh at the same things,” says Elliot. “She will always see the absurd in many things and does not take herself too seriously and is very witty.” As she approaches her 75th birthday and ever more responsibility, the future surely seems daunting.
Camilla has decided she will keep Ray Mill, her Wiltshire home, when she is queen, so that she has a bolt-hole to escape the rigidity and scrutiny of palace life. At her home she can potter around in a dressing gown, cook for her family, and relax. She makes a point of factoring in time for herself in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance—walking, reading, holidaying in Scotland, and being with her family. She loves swimming, especially in the sea in Cornwall, where she and Charles vacation. And she loves to cook and makes a mean roast chicken, according to Tom.
A 70-something queen consort talking about difficult issues like domestic violence, rape, and female genital mutilation is, some might say, a queen for the modern world. And while Charles and Camilla may not represent youth and glamour like the Cambridges, together with William and Kate, they’ve formed a new sort of Fab Four. At an age where retirement should be on the horizon, Camilla is in for the long haul, something her family say she is fully willing to embrace. “She is very strong, resilient, and patient,” says Elliot. “She is also very committed to supporting her husband in all he does and very forthright in supporting the causes she believes in.”
When I meet the duchess at a busy reception at Clarence House on International Women’s Day, she is in sparkling form in an emerald Bruce Oldfield coatdress and sensible black suede boots.
“She’s practical and very determined,” says Kelly. “I think as queen that will be very important. And she’s clearly a great supporter of Charles. They are a great couple, and I think together they will build a platform for getting society to care about vulnerability.”
Perhaps Camilla’s greatest success is that she has never tried to upstage Charles, nor has she tried to shape the role to her advantage. “I think that she proves the power of silence,” says Clare. “She’s found her place, and I think that’s partly down to knowing she has been accepted. It’s like a ship sailing across the ocean, she’s finally got to her destination.”
Katie Nicholl is the author of the forthcoming book The New Royals.
CREDITS FOR LEDE ILLUSTRATION: QUEEN ELIZABETH II AND CAMILLA, DUCHESS OF CORNWALL: PAUL ELLIS. CAMILLA, TOM, AND LAURA PARKER BOWLES: TIM GRAHAM PHOTO LIBRARY. CAMILLA WITH ANDREW PARKER BOWLES: FRANK BARRATT/KEYSTONE. PRINCE CHARLES AND CAMILLA: PETER NICHOLLS. CHARLES AND CAMILLA IN CARRIAGE: DANIEL BEREHULAK. YOUNG CHARLES AND CAMILLA: TIM GRAHAM. CHARLES AND CAMILLA AT HIGHLAND GAMES: JULIAN PARKER/UK PRESS. CHARLES AND CAMILLA WITH BOUQUET: HUGO BURNAND. CAMILLA IN TIARA: DAN KITWOOD. ALL FROM GETTY IMAGES. PRINCESS DIANA AND CAMILLA: EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS/ARCHIVE PHOTOS.
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