Last year, around the coronation, I started to get the feeling that all was not well between King Charles and Queen Camilla. It felt like as soon as Camilla got the big prize – she was queen of all she surveyed – she lost interest or no longer wanted to do much for “the crown.” I also got the feeling that between Charles and Camilla, Camilla was the one with health issues which were not being disclosed. Crash cut to this year, and Camilla is the last royal standing (currently on vacation) and Charles has cancer and there are some pretty terrible rumors about the state of his health. Well, one of Camilla’s defenders is now chiming in about how Camilla “won’t be bullied” by the men in grey. Oh??
A royal insider has claimed Queen Camilla is holding her own among the palace men in grey after taking on a larger official role following King Charles’s cancer diagnosis. Royal photographer Arthur Edwards said Camilla, 76, will support the King “whatever happens”, with the Queen serving as a source of strength for the monarch.
“The King is carrying a heavy load, but Camilla is supporting him with it,” he told The Sun newspaper’s Royal Exclusive show on Wednesday. “They laugh a lot. She’s no doormat – she stands up to him, she won’t be bullied. This relationship has been going on a long while now and they’re incredibly happy together. She will be there supporting him whatever happens until the very end.”
Meanwhile, royal biographer Tom Quinn told the Mirror newspaper that Charles’s condition may be “more dangerous” than the public has been led to believe.
“Officials had assumed Charles would remain healthy at least into his mid-eighties before succession planning would need to begin but in fact it has now begun and indicates perhaps that Charles’ cancer is more dangerous than we have been led to believe,” he told the outlet on Tuesday.
However, Mr Edwards shot down speculation that Charles is gravely ill and said he believes the King will make a “full recovery”.
“I suspect the King is going to make a full recovery,” he told The Sun. “We don’t know when the King will be back at work or back facing the public (and) the reason he doesn’t do that is that he can’t afford to catch colds or an illness or the flu which would hamper his treatment. The reason he’s keeping away from the public eye is because of that. It’s not because he doesn’t want to. It’s because the doctors have ordered him not to.”
Re: The Men in Grey… I’ve long suspected that in addition to the established courtiers who surround Charles and Camilla in a formal capacity, Camilla has always had her own side-operation with informal advisors, journalists, press barons and trusted family members. That’s what makes her bulletproof in many ways – there’s the palace protecting her, but her side-operation is always around to do her dirty work and/or shut down speculation and rumors. All of which to say, I wonder if Camilla’s choice to jet off on holiday was well-received in Buckingham Palace, but Camilla’s side-operation is working in overdrive to ensure that Camilla still comes out ahead… even when it looks like she’s abandoned her cancer-stricken husband so she can get spa treatments.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.