Maybe not everyone knows that Camilla Shand, Duchess of Cornwall and future queen consort of England, she does not have pierced ears. She revealed it herself in her first interview with British Vogue released on the eve of his 75th birthday. “My granddaughters insist that I have to pierce my earlobes, but I won’t give in, I won’t get this birthday present,” she joked with her. aristocratic tone (“What you can only have if you were born in a certain period in a certain environment”, he specifies Giles Hattersley who interviewed her), reiterating her being ironic and decisive, but also flexible at the right point.
For years Camilla – born Shand, married (and later divorced) Parker Bowles, and finally Duchess of Cornwall and future queen consort for explicit “desire” of Elizabeth II – it was nothing but “The other woman”. The “ugly” she had rendered Lady Di’s wedding “too crowded” (as Diana herself said in the famous interview with the BBC of 1995 doing infuriate the teenage Prince William) and who had made the beautiful and beloved princess of the people suffer. For Penny Junorauthor of The Duchess (William Collins, 2018), “people only knew Camilla from what Diana said about her. And at the time she was calling her rottweiler“.
After Lady Di’s death in 1997, the dislike towards her almost became contempt: «Now he will have free field» said the most malicious, thinking that his only purpose in life was to enter a Buckingham Palace. It was not an easy time for Camilla: «I have been examined for so long that in the end I realized that I had to find a way to live with it. And I moved on, even though I think no one likes to always be looked at and criticized», He tells today to Vogue her, whose only fault had been to be loved deeply and sincerely.
But the champions of true love – who defended with the sword that of the young Diana for her (in their opinion unworthy) prince charming – they did not recognize the deep feeling that bound Carlo to Camilla. In which he had found not only a love, but also a friend, a support, the same vision of life and sharing of interests, in short, the ideal life partner. What had been the Prince Philip for his mother (and vice versa) and that he – according to his biographers – was looking for and certainly had not found in Diana.
It was the time but to agree with Camilla. That today, at almost 75 years old, and thanks also to the intervention of the Queen, she has finally managed to rise in the popularity rating of the British. She did it by showing herself for what she is: a woman aristocratic but not far from reality, well integrated into Firm but with his own active life even outside the Royal Family (she is very attached to her children’s boys, with whom she plays Wordle every day: “We learn a lot from the kids and they learn from us: that’s how it must be,” he says). Cultured, ironicfull of interests, attentive to the promotion of the arts e open to news: the success of his literary Instagram profile The Duchess of Cornwall’s Reading Room proves it, “I barely knew what Instagram was, I didn’t even know where to look for it: seeing the profile take off was amazingHe said.
And then of course engaged in social work. His battle against domestic violence is equal to the commitment of Kate Middleton for the care of the early childhood years. “I think we all know someone who has happened to,” she explained to Vogue referring to the victims of violence, «I myself I’ve heard so many stories, too often: as friends, as friends of friends, and I felt it was my duty to find ways to do something ». And that something he does also in private, outside the commitments and official occasions, by going to visit protected houses, for example, without photographers in tow.
That of Camilla Shand from “rottweiler” to future queen consort appreciated and esteemed also by British subjects was a slow and inexorable metamorphosis. That she with aplomb, patience and resistance has carried out in silence and without clamor: yeswithout complaining and without explainingas a Windsor should do.
There remains only one worry in these last peaceful years, spent between reading and gardening, alongside her husband Charles: Harry. That not only still accuses him, in some way, of his mother’s suffering, but that he absolutely does not accept Camilla’s reservations about his wife Meghan Markle. Not even the last (rather formal, to be honest) meetings in April and June did not help ease the tensions. But sooner or later Camilla will be able to conquer him too.
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Prince Charles and Camilla of Cornwall at Royal Ascot 2022
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Camilla of Cornwall on the day she was awarded the title of Royal Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter
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On the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Trooping of Color, last June 2, the opening day of the celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II
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The Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge at Trooping the Color last June 2nd
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Alongside her husband, Prince Charles, during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations
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With Queen Elizabeth II
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Charles and Camilla on their wedding day, April 9, 2005. With them the princes Harry and William, Queen Elizabeth with her husband Prince Philip and her father and children: Major Bruce Shand with Tom and Laura Parker-Bowles .
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Camilla and Diana photographed together in the autumn of 1981
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Camilla and Andrew Parker Bowles on their wedding day on July 4th 1973
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Carlo and Camilla in 1979
Source: Vanity Fair