How Queen Camilla clawed her way to the Coronation crown
All hail Queen Camilla.
It’s the phrase many never thought they’d hear as Britain gets ready for the coronation of King Charles and his beloved wife on Saturday.
Tina Brown, the former Vanity Fair editor, told Page Six: “Camilla’s is the greatest image rehab in history. She deserves a crown just for toughing it out.”
The crowning of Queen Camilla will be the culmination of a quarter of a century of intensive work by the king, their friends and their counselors.
Its most dramatic moment came last year, when there was a “sustained campaign” to “strong arm” Queen Elizabeth to endorse Camilla as queen consort shortly before her death, multiple sources claimed.
On February 5, 2022 — the eve of her Platinum Jubilee — the late Queen wrote in a touching letter: “And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes king, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as queen consort as she continues her own loyal service.”
The then Prince of Wales followed with an official response, writing that both he and Camilla were “deeply conscious of the honour represented by my mother’s wish.”
But the entire affair left a sour taste in some courtiers’ mouths, with the announcement overshadowing a day of supreme emotion for Charles’ mother. February 6 was not just the 70th anniversary of her becoming queen, it was the anniversary of her beloved father, King George V’s, death.
Being willing to take the spotlight from Queen Elizabeth, the source said, was a sign to some of the aggression of Charles’ campaign to make Camilla queen.
“There was a sustained behind-the-scenes campaigning to get Queen Elizabeth to publicly endorse the title ‘Queen Consort’; the news hijacked the jubilee,” one palace source told Page Six. “Why not let her have her day?”
The title queen consort was itself a dramatic change from what had been said when Charles and Camilla married in April 2005: that the new Duchess of Cornwall planned to “use the title HRH the Princess Consort when the Prince of Wales accedes to the throne.”
Camilla, in simple terms, would never be queen. And then in March 2020, reps for the couple reiterated this to The Times of London, saying, “The intention is for the duchess to be known as princess consort when the prince accedes to the throne. This was announced at the time of the marriage and there has been absolutely no change at all.”
But 2022’s change from princess consort to queen consort was not the end: this month, when the palace released images of the coronation invitations, they referred to Camilla simply as “queen.”
And on Saturday she will take her place side by side with Charles, wearing Queen Mary’s Crown glittering with its 2,200 diamonds.
People have got used to Charles, 74, and his former mistress, 75, as a twinkly-eyed pair of grandparents who would seem happiest pottering around the garden, thanks to a phenomenal PR job which makes their unpopularity hard to recall.
Charles admitted to cheating on Diana with Camilla — as Diana would infamously tell Martin Bashir in her 1995 interview: “There were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
Charles and Camilla met in their early 20s and dated briefly before he joined the Royal Navy.
But he was left heartbroken when Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles, a major in the British army, in 1973 — and tried to stop the union, writer Penny Junor revealed.
The pair remained close, however, and Diana was left “devastated” upon finding a bracelet to be gifted to Camilla with the initials F&G for their nicknames “Fred and Gladys” just two weeks before their 1981 wedding. She told how she recoiled upon seeing Camilla in the crowd at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Diana told how she confronted Camilla about the affair in 1989. “Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what is going on between you and Charles, I wasn’t born yesterday.'” she recounted in Andrew Morton’s book, “Diana: Her True Story.”
By 1995, Camilla and Andrew Parker-Bowles, who have two children, Tom and Laura, filed for divorce; he has long been described as a serial cheat. Charles and Diana filed for divorce the following year.
When Diana tragically died in August 1997, the British public made no secret of their distaste for Charles and Camilla.
But PR maestro Mark Bolland — who came on board that year and was swiftly promoted to Charles’ Deputy Private Secretary — and Stephen Lamport, his Private Secretary, helped devise a media strategy that slowly but surely changed perceptions.
The pair orchestrated the coverage of the prince’s first photographed public appearance with Camilla at the Ritz Hotel in January 1999 (dubbed “Operation Ritz”), and of Camilla’s first meeting with Queen Elizabeth in June 2000 at a private party at Charles’ Highgrove House.
Charles’ popularity increased from a low of 20 percent following the death of Diana to 75 percent during Bolland’s tenure.
Bolland stayed with Charles until 2002. The source close to Diana told Page Six: “Mark essentially weaponized Charles’ press office and he was brought in for the purpose of the rehabilitation of Camilla.”
Camilla and Charles have now been married for 18 years after tying the knot in a civil ceremony — which his mother did not attend — followed by a reception at Windsor Castle.
The wedding coincided with the Grand National, a fixture in the horse racing calendar. Queen Elizabeth, who was passionate about racing, began her speech by saying she had two important announcements to make. The first was that Hedgehunter had won the race; the second was that she was delighted to be welcoming her son and his bride to the “winners’ enclosure” after overcoming “terrible obstacles.”
“They have come through and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves,” she said.
But Charles and Camilla were beginning another race: to make her queen. In 2022, they finally got Queen Elizabeth’s blessing for the once unthinkable move.
The source said that the palace worked on the principle that “you have the floors of human memory where things that are not constantly in the news disappear into the past.”
The new king and queen are basking in the glow of his mother, the source said: “You have the knock-on effect from the Platinum Jubilee celebrations and the queen’s funeral. There is a general warm glow over everything royal.”
As Brown said previously: ‘Diana would have loathed the idea of Queen Camilla, there’s no question about it…” — although she said it was “a very shrewd bit of estate planning” by the queen, who died in September aged 96.
But for those who care for Diana, Saturday’s crowning brings different emotions.
A source who was very close to Diana told Page Six: “To celebrate Camilla’s coronation will be very, very difficult.
“Supporters of Diana just know that she had a raw deal and will take no pleasure from what they see on Saturday.”
Those Diana loyalists see Camilla’s victory as having come to a price of defeat for Diana. They say that many of the guests in Westminster Abbey are the friends of Charles who privately trashed the princess’ mental health in whispered conversations in aristocratic drawing rooms and during fox hunts.
“Camilla is the one who benefited from all of this; her man is now king. It is dirty work, no way around it,” the source said.
That view, however, is far from universal: Camilla, the most senior woman in the royal family, is now widely respected.
She is a fierce campaigner against domestic abuse, patron of the Royal Osteoporosis Society after her mother died of the disease, and has launched her own reading initiative, the Reading Room, forging alliances with Jenna Bush Hager and celebrities including Judi Dench.
One palace insider who has worked with her said: “Camilla is no fool, she’s as normal as far as aristocrats can be normal.
“She doesn’t care about the trappings, there was one time she even went and sat in the car to wait for Charles at an event because she’d simply had enough.”
Camilla’s five grandchildren will all have roles in the coronation ceremony. Her son, Tom Parker Bowles, has Lola, 15, and Freddy, 13, and her daughter, Laura Lopes, has Eliza, 15, and 13-year-old twins, Louis and Gus.
For Charles’ warring sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, they have differing relationships with Camilla.
“I think William is cordial, polite to Camilla,” said the palace insider.
However, Harry has made it no secret what he thinks. In his memoir, “Spare,” he told how both he and William urged Charles not to marry Camilla.
Harry also claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview in January that his stepmother is “dangerous” and a “villain” who left “bodies in the street” in order to gain respect from the public.
Camilla’s close friend Fiona Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marchioness of Lansdowne, told the Sunday Times that she was “hurt” by his comments — but offered a glimpse into the pragmatism which has aided the campaign to be queen.
“Her philosophy is always, ‘Don’t make a thing of it and it will settle down — least said, soonest mended,’” she said.
However, Camilla’s son Tom says his mom married for love.
“I don’t care what anyone says — this wasn’t any sort of endgame. She married the person she loved and this is what happened,” Parker Bowles said.
