Media Hell First, Respect Then: Queen Camilla – The Royal Side Contestant

Media hell first, then respect
King’s wife Camilla – the royal side contestant

By Wolfram Neidhard
09/09/2022 11:13 am

It wasn’t easy for her: Camilla, Queen Consort. She has long been extremely unpopular and a target of the media. The now 75-year-old, who has been with the current King Charles III since 2005, only finds out late. is married, valued by the Windsors and by the British people.

Queen Elizabeth II is dead, King Charles III. is the new head of state of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In recent years, the increasing physical vulnerability of the long-term regent has made it necessary for family members to attend even more public appointments than before. The queen could no longer travel abroad anyway and after the death of her husband Prince Philip, the health of the queen deteriorated. Even before her death, the youth jumped in, kept important appointments and kept the Windsor “company” going. Including an important member of the royal family, who at the age of 75 is already old in the traditional sense: Her Majesty the Queen Consort Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge, divorced Parker-Bowles.

Camilla has been an integral part of the British public for quite some time now. She completes her appointments with the Windsors’ signature routine, making the people she shakes hands with feel like they’re there for them in that moment. And they thank her. Camilla finds the right tone – for example during a hospital visit after the terrorist attacks on London Bridge and Borough Market in early June 2017. “Britain has shown its best side,” she says during the visit. “Everyone stays together.” And those present applauded, Camilla is well received. She is a welcome member of the royal family.

It wasn’t always like this: It took a long time for Camilla, born on July 17, 1947, to find her way into the hearts of British. After all, as Charles’s second wife, she is the successor to Princess Diana, who is still adored by the islanders and who died in a car accident in Paris in 1997. And Diana, if you believe the British tabloids, had called her old rival a “Rottweiler.” The betrayed publicly complained that a marriage had taken place in three. She was not a child of grief either. The Queen was suspicious of her eldest’s affair with married Camilla Parker-Bowles, believing that the doomed marriage of Charles and Diana could somehow be saved for the sake of her grandchildren William and Harry.

Broken hearts and unhappy marriages

Born Camilla Rosemary Shand, Charles had met in 1970 during a polo match. The young Prince of Wales was fond of the noblewoman, who was a year her senior and descended from Stuart King Charles II (1630-1685). The love affair was short and intense – but at the time with no future. British author Penny Junor also explains the reason in her recently published Camilla biography “The Duchess: The Untold Story”: In the eyes of the Queen and Prince Philips, Camilla was “not aristocratic enough”. Besides, her virginity had already been taken away.

It really broke Charles’ heart when his Camilla decided to marry cavalry officer Andrew Parker Bowles, who was eight years his senior. From the marriage with him there were two children – Thomas, whose godfather is the new king, as well as Laura. Charles broke off ties for a few years and was the adored party prince. But in the late 1970s, they got back together.

Because Charles and Camilla really loved each other. And because of their liaison, their already unhappy marriage later broke up. But before that, dramas happened – especially in the house of the heir apparent. Diana, then 20, was said to have been extremely jealous during their honeymoon in 1981 because her husband kept in touch with Camilla. As Junor claims to have discovered, Diana is said to have staged an actual telephone terror, which also involved death threats.

The tampon scandal

The pinnacle of marital mud-slinging came in 1993 when an intimate conversation between Charles and Camilla, dubbed a tampon call in the British media, went public. Now the Queen had had enough, especially since she had just endured an “annus horribilis” (three divorces from her children and the great fire at Windsor Castle) in 1992. She agreed to the divorce of Charles and Diana, which was finalized in 1996. Camilla ended her marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles in 1995. She withdrew from the public eye for a few years – a sensible move given the hype surrounding Diana after her accidental death and her own underground position with the British.

The victory of love

Prince Charles’ friends and advisers, however, found a way to get Camilla back in public. They turned to the media to arrange a joint appearance of the heir apparent with his great love in 1999. It was a party that Charles and Camilla attended together. Then they took a picture together. A year later, Camilla first met Queen Elizabeth II. In 2001, the heir apparent and Camilla kissed in public for the first time. The court announced through the press that Princes William and Harry were on good terms with the woman at their father’s side and were pleased with Charles’s happiness. The ice was broken for the majority of Britons – Camilla became socially acceptable.

However, five years had to pass before the Queen agreed to a wedding. On April 9, 2005, Prince Charles and Camilla were officially married at Windsor City Hall. Not to compete with the late Diana, Camilla renounced the “Princess of Wales” title and took the “Duchess of Cornwall” title.

On her 70th birthday from the throne, Elizabeth II ensured that Camilla could bear the title of queen alongside Charles. “It is my sincere wish that when the time comes, Camilla will be known as the ‘Queen Consort,’” the monarch wrote in a statement. It is actually the rule in Britain that the wives of kings are crowned as royal consorts. This was also the case with Elizabeth’s mother and grandmother (Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary). However, in the case of Camilla, who was blamed for the breakup of Charles’s first marriage, the issue has long been contentious.

Unpretentious Appearances

Camilla didn’t care about the debate because she saw herself as part of the royal Windsor wheel work. She got on well with the now deceased queen, because the two women were not so different after all. Both Elizabeth and Camilla had or still have a soft spot for rural life. Elizabeth loved her daughter-in-law’s sense of duty and her unpretentious public appearances. The Queen also did a women’s program – such as in 2012 when she visited Fortum and Mason in London with Camilla and William’s grandson Catherine.

Camilla does a lot for her public image and that gets praise from Britten. She is president of the National Osteoporosis Society. Her mother and grandmother suffered from the disease, also called osteoporosis. She also supports organizations that deal with victims of crime. In general, it is women’s rights that Camilla is fighting for.

Unlike Diana, Camilla appears more in the background. But that doesn’t make your volunteering any less effective. In any case, the members of the Windsor family convinced the royal co-driver.