Here are some photos of Queen Camilla on Saturday, at the QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot. Rather quietly, Camilla has become a regular at all of the major horse races across England. It beats doing real work, I guess. Anyway, I haven’t seen Camilla in a minute, and I was struck by how bad/sick she looked on Saturday. There have been murmurs in the tabloids that Camilla has been in poor health for much of the past year, and I believe it. It seems like every other month, we’re being told that she’s got another sinus infection or respiratory virus or something. Maybe she’s just catching everything going around, or maybe something else is going on.
Meanwhile, Camilla is apparently seeking credit for the big royal story of the month, Prince Andrew putting his ducal title in abeyance and “giving up” his honors. While Scooter King William has demanded credit across multiple outlets, Sky News’ Rhiannon Mills was one of the few to point out that Camilla might have a big say in what happened with Andrew.
The latest stories about Prince Andrew and his email to Jeffrey Epstein were again a sign of just how close he’d been to the convicted paedophile, and an extract released from the late Virginia Giuffre’s book was heartbreaking and excruciatingly seedy. And yes, the full book is released on Tuesday. But in some ways, we have heard a lot of these lurid details before, albeit allegations that Prince Andrew denies. Which is why it feels like this time, the family had just had enough.
It’s framed as a personal statement from Andrew, but the involvement of his relatives could not be any clearer: “In discussion with the King, and my immediate and wider family,” he writes, followed up by, “with His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further”.
It has always been hard to get a full picture of how much the King has engaged in the problems with his brother. Speak to those who know the family well and they’ll tell you our current monarch “doesn’t like confrontation”, just like Queen Elizabeth II. And while there has always remained “a warm familial feeling between the two brothers” which we’ve seen through Andrew’s appearance at family events, it is “tempered by the King’s responsibilities as head of state to be entirely separate from the perceived, real or alleged activities of the Duke of York”.
In the end, as head of the institution, and not as his brother, the King would have had to lead the discussions about the Andrew problem, but I suspect with heavy involvement from his eldest son and wife.
William, only in recent weeks, has told us there will be change when he becomes monarch, his advisors stressing he isn’t afraid to question why the Royal Family continues to do things in a certain way. His very visible unease at standing next to Prince Andrew at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral showed us how uncomfortable he felt about his uncle being there at such a public moment. His involvement in those discussions behind the scenes and making sure the institution was seen to be taking action against Andrew is likely to have been considerable.
I know that Queen Camilla is also a quiet but hugely powerful influence behind palace walls. She is her husband’s listening ear, sounding board, but also not afraid to tell him when she believes there needs to be change. Her own work to break taboos around sexual violence and encourage survivors to speak out must have made it even more difficult for her to read the stories about Andrew’s links to Epstein, and the sexual allegations against her brother-in-law, even though he has always vehemently denied them.
This is the second time I’ve seen someone mention Camilla’s work with anti-sexual-violence groups, battered-women’s shelters and survivors’ rights. I’ve given Camilla credit for it for years – she could have easily chosen advocacy work of the “gardens and dogs” variety, but Camilla has genuinely done some meaningful work in some difficult areas. Is it possible that Camilla suddenly decided that, oh right, she looks hypocritical as hell for walking to church on Christmas with Andrew, who is credibly accused of raping girls and women trafficked to him by two convicted predators? Was this all about Camilla protecting her own image? And did Camilla actually lobby for Andrew’s punishment at all? I do not know. But I would bet that Camilla had a bigger say than William.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
