King Charles and Queen Camilla celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on April 9th. To celebrate, Buckingham Palace authorized several sycophants to speak at length with the Daily Mail’s Becky English. Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot is quoted extensively, and throughout the piece, I got the feeling that the anniversary celebration leans quite heavily on Camilla’s narrative. I’m not saying Charles couldn’t be bothered, but it definitely feels like Camilla still has more to “prove.” Given the fact that her approval ratings have always been some of the lowest on record, I understand why. Charles and Camilla have basically spent forty years trying to rewrite their affair, their destruction of Diana, their hatred of Diana’s sons and the real state of their marriage. This is just another piece in that reimagining.
The anniversary: That was back on April 9, 2005, which means that on Wednesday next week, unbelievably, the King, 76, and Queen, 77, will mark 20 years of marriage – albeit on a busy day of engagements in Rome as part of a state visit to Italy. The romance that many had predicted would be the downfall of the monarchy has become one of its most enduring, if unconventional, love stories.
Camilla’s sister spoke at length to the Mail: Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot, in a rare public comment, explains its success simply: ‘They have known each other for a long time, almost their entire lives. Theirs, as any marriage should be, is a huge friendship. The key thing is that there is not really anything competitive between them. She is not trying to steal his thunder in any way at all. He is the King. And she will do her best to support him and be totally loyal to him.’ That’s not to say Camilla is a pushover. ‘She is a very strong character and she sticks to her guns. It’s quite extraordinary when I look back at how she has coped with everything.’
Elliot on Camilla’s love & loyalty: ‘Yes [love], that and loyalty. She is incredibly loyal to people she loves… She is a very straightforward person. You always know where you stand.’ There’s another secret ingredient, Ms Elliot adds. Camilla’s ‘really good sense of humour…I would almost say it’s the biggest gift she has given him. The humour. It’s been such a bond between them. And even if they argue, they will always laugh.’
Camilla & Charles argue about work: ‘The Royal Family don’t do illness… and I think that’s quite difficult for the Queen. Consequently, towards the end of last year she was quite ill herself. I think she was just exhausted because of all the travel and stepping up to the mark in his place. I would say argument-wise that is absolutely the top of what they disagree about. She thinks, like we all do, that he does far too much, hates letting people down. But hopefully not to the detriment of his own health.
Their separate country homes: Interestingly, the couple still spend significant periods apart, in what one source describes as the ‘quaintly old-fashioned, aristocratic way’, with Charles regularly disappearing off to Highgrove and Camilla to her private home, Ray Mill, in nearby Wiltshire for weekends It may be anathema to many, but some of their friends say it is the ‘secret’ to their longevity and strength as a couple.
Their affair while both were married to other people: Charles and Camilla, who are said to have resumed their relationship in 1986, were immediately branded the villains of the piece. Even their supporters admit that mistakes were made, but friends also tell me the situation was far from one-sided and Charles still deeply ‘regrets’ the pain and sadness caused. ‘Both of them [Charles and Diana] behaved badly in that first marriage and made decisions that none of us could ever condone,’ one says. ‘But we can seek to try to understand them. When you look back on it now, asking someone to sacrifice… happiness for the sake of their public persona seems really quite cruel.’
Prince Harry enjoyed Charles & Camilla’s wedding: It’s worth noting that in his vitriolic memoir, Spare, Prince Harry claimed he and Prince William had begged their father not to remarry. My sources (and there are many of them) all agree on the fact that Harry enjoyed the nuptials, however. ‘My abiding memory about the wedding was how happy and excited Harry seemed,’ says one. ‘He and William came up with the idea of decorating their father’s Aston Martin as a send-off. He seemed pretty bought in. I am sure there were mixed emotions over the years, but all I can tell you is how he seemed at the time. And he was happy for his father. This seems a very revisionist version of events.’
The years of lying about whether Camilla would be called queen: The issue of whether she would one day be Queen hovered in the background, Clarence House announcing that it was ‘intended’ she would be known as Princess Consort when Charles acceded to the throne. One Buckingham Palace source tells me, however, that ‘no one there ever thought she would be anything other than Queen’, not least because the King felt so strongly on the issue. For him, it was less about the role and more about respect. ‘What other woman isn’t allowed to be called “Mrs X” and have the same right and privilege of a first wife?’ one insider says. ‘To have done otherwise would have been punitive.’
Camilla is still pretending she never asked to be queen: But this was something that no one was keen to force in a hurry, and Camilla herself was inscrutable – ‘sphinx-like’ – on the subject, refusing to discuss it even with family and friends. One well-placed source stresses: ‘She had never been pushing for it. Never in a thousand years. Some people have said, “Oh, well, of course it was what she always wanted to become Queen”. But absolutely not.’
There are more lies in this piece, especially about the business of manipulating a dying queen into giving her “blessing” for Camilla to be called queen. I’m not going to relitigate that sh-t – I know what happened and everyone else does too. The section about Diana though… holy sh-t. “Both of them [Charles and Diana] behaved badly in that first marriage and made decisions that none of us could ever condone…When you look back on it now, asking someone to sacrifice… happiness for the sake of their public persona seems really quite cruel.” Charles cheated on Diana throughout their courtship, Camilla was “managing” and manipulating Diana (who was then 19/20), and Charles had multiple affairs with multiple women throughout the marriage. The whole “it’s cruel to ask Charles to be faithful and respectful to his wife” is insane, and yes, that stuff is definitely coming from Charles. Anyway, Harry definitely meant it when he wrote that Camilla left bodies in the street. Jesus.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
