- Daniela Ralph
- British Royal Family Correspondent
At the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III this weekend, the Archbishop of Canterbury will anoint Camilla with special oil for the occasion and then crown her as queen. It’s a moment you never imagined going through.
In the early 1990s, when her relationship with the King first made headlines, she was dubbed “the most hated woman in Britain” and it’s hard to believe she would now really be crowned.
For a while, she was one of the most hated figures in the British media, blamed for the breakdown of Charles’ marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales.
But in subsequent years, public hostility to her eased, and she was slowly and carefully accepted as one of the eldest members of the royal family.
Eve Pollard was a tabloid editor during the period when news of Charles’s marriage to Diana dominated the British media in every detail.
She later became acquainted with Camilla through charity work, and Eve admits that the press exaggerated Camilla’s story so much that it turned her into a new heroine in the popular drama.
“I think that was very harsh. I think we didn’t really know anything about Charles and Diana’s marriage. We didn’t quite know the truth.”
“Camilla was quiet, she didn’t say a word, she didn’t say anything to anyone, she did what her position required.”
Camilla recently appointed six of her oldest friends to be maids to the Queen, and Baroness Carlene Chisholm is one of them. They will carry out some of the duties performed by the late Queen’s maids of honor, such as supporting her at public events.
They all stood by her side during the difficult days when the criticism was at its peak.
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Camilla with Baroness Chisholm, one of her oldest friends
Baroness Chisholm remembers an incident which she says shows how strong her character is.
“We used to ride horses together and not a day went by without the press hounding us. Suddenly the paparazzi appeared in front of us with their cameras.” “Camilla was completely calm, and she said to them, ‘If we let you take one picture, will you leave us alone?'”
But the photographers did not leave her alone in general, and they were always waiting for her on every street corner. Instead of Camilla getting angry, she would make the same request and move on again.
Her childhood friends say that many aspects of her personality stem from her family background, which is self-confident. Where she grew up in an idyllic country setting in the Sussex Downs.
The journalist and historian William Shawcross lived nearby, and says of Camilla and her sister Annabelle that they were quite independent: “The boys were allowed to go out with their ponies into the fields by themselves and spend the night out, with only a sandwich and a sleeping bag or a rug.”
Her parents, in their own way, were her role models for being calm when it came to facing the odds.
Camilla’s father, Major Bruce Shand, was a war hero who spent more than two years during World War II as a prisoner of the Germans.
Meanwhile, her mother, Rosalind Shand, faced her long and painful battle with osteoporosis.
In the early 1990s, Camilla was in real need of patience and courage, and the press’s interest in her was growing exponentially.
In 1993, the Daily Mirror published a transcript of an intimate phone conversation between Camilla and Charles. The story became known as “tampon tapes” because in one of the calls, Charles told her that he had a tampon for her.
There was a new embarrassment when Princess Diana told the BBC that “there are three people in this marriage.”
For his part, Charles said that his romantic relationship with Camilla did not begin until after his marriage had collapsed beyond repair.
In 1994, Camilla and her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, filed for divorce. A year later, Charles and Diana did the same.
Another five years passed until they were seen together as a married couple.
Public attitudes towards Camilla began to change during that period, due in part to the appointment of Mark Boland to the royal palace in 1997.
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The first picture taken of Charles and Camilla together was in 1999 as they exited the Ritz Hotel in London.
He was officially Deputy Private Secretary, but his main task was to help repair the troubled public image of both Charles and Camilla.
Six years after their first appearance together at the Ritz Hotel in London, they eventually married.
In his memoirs, Spear, Prince Harry, son of King Charles, criticized what he saw at the time as a campaign to change public opinion of Camilla.
But her former public relations director, Julian Payne, said that she did not favor launching a public relations campaign to improve her image and standing with public opinion, but rather simply preferred to meet people and allow them to get to know her and make their own decisions and form their own opinions.
“I think that’s what people saw,” Payne says. “They were able to judge her on the work she’d done over the past 17 years, rather than getting too caught up in what happened so long ago.”
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Julian Payne (center of the photo) says that Camilla wanted people to get to know her and form their own opinion of her without being influenced by PR campaigns.
What happened so long ago is still part of the story of the Queen consort, so her friends believe she is now well-equipped to fulfill her role as Queen.
Her life was not perfect, but full of challenges and troubles.
Well-known TV personality Craig Revel Horwood, who chaired the Come Dancing judges, became friends with Camilla through her charitable work to fight osteoporosis.
He says her family background makes her appear more real than some members of the royal family: “The thing about Camilla is that she’s had a tough life and she’s faced huge challenges to overcome, and she’s been very brave about telling people about herself personally.”
Charles may be credited with changing public opinion of Camilla, as he has clearly shown the happiness of their 18-year marriage every chance he gets.
In almost every public speech he referred to her as his “beloved wife”.
Actress Dame Penelope Keith has known the royal couple for decades. She describes Camilla as having a “wonderful calming effect” on the king. “He enjoys her company, I wouldn’t say it changed him, but he’s very comfortable and now he’s very supported.”
Holding the title of Queen at the age of 75 entails many responsibilities.
Craig Revell-Horwood doesn’t see age as an issue for her: “She just celebrated her 75th birthday, but she looks like she’s 25, she still wants to get up and dance and she still wants to support all her charities.
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Craig Revell-Horwood: At 75, Camilla still wants to get up and dance.
Julian Payne believes she will bring a new vision when she becomes queen: “She’s lived 57 years in the real world, certainly a world of privilege, but she knows the difference between the royal world and everyday life, and I think her ability to combine both worlds is very important.”
What advice do her friends give her for the coronation?
“I hope she doesn’t have to be on her feet for so long,” says Penelope Keith. “It would be very tiring, wouldn’t it?”
Baroness Chisholm will make sure Camilla is comfortable while in church during all the coronations.
It will be very moving to experience Queen Mary’s crown on her friend’s head.
“I think I’ll take a lot of tissues with me. I’m the kind of person who cries even when a hat falls off. Never mind seeing two friends play that role. It’s going to be really emotional.”
