Here are more photos of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to the Channel Islands this week. While there was some kind of security incident – which left the royal team scrambling – the trip seems to have gone very well. Surprisingly well, actually – judging solely from the photos, Charles and Cam got a great reception. Meanwhile, today is Queen Camilla’s 77th birthday. She’s a Cancer, as is Prince William (Diana was too). From what I can see, the palace didn’t organize a huge birthday PR blitz this year, but they did organize a few soft-focus pieces to celebrate Cam. Personally, I found this Mail piece by Brin Hoey very shady.
As she reaches 77 today, Camilla has a great deal to look back on in just the past year. 2024 has brought great struggle as she has seen both her husband and Catherine, the Princess of Wales, be diagnosed with cancer. Now, as the King continues a roster of royal duties that signal his health is stable, and as Kate also makes some public appearances amid her own ongoing treatment, Camilla may be feeling that things are on the up.
She may also be reflecting on how, although it took her 30 years, she finally married the love of her life – after both she and Charles had wed other people, raised families and got divorced. They became involved in the most scandalous royal affair of recent times and survived the torrent of abuse that was aimed at them following the death of Princess Diana, the most famous woman in the world.
Now, after years of quiet, hard work, Camilla has decent approval ratings among the public and is rightly considered a deserved part of the Royal Family. This year especially, the Queen has been the steadfast, trustworthy rock for the royals as change and upheaval have whirled around them.
Although many people had wondered why Charles was so besotted with Camilla, Prince Philip was not one of them. He said he fully understood why her earthy sexiness had attracted his eldest son, even though she could never compete with Diana in the glamour stakes.
Another of the reasons why Charles was attracted to Camilla Parker Bowles – as she was still called by many people even after she married into the Royal Family – was that she was prepared to appear to take second place to him at all times. This was unlike Diana, who eclipsed every other Royal from the moment she appeared on the scene. Charles hated competition, from men or women, and Camilla realized right from the start that if their relationship was going to work she would have to play second fiddle to him, or at least, appear to do so.
And where King Charles is a romantic, Camilla is a realist and is, in my view, the cleverer of the two, so she has never tried to upstage him. But on her birthday she is also able to look back on many other incidents in the past concerning her more personal life.
I winced several times and then chuckled to myself. “Camilla has decent approval ratings…” She’s consistently one of the least popular royals, even after decades of painstaking image-crafting. “Even though she could never compete with Diana in the glamour stakes.” Camilla has to live alongside the ghost of Diana forever and I love that for her. “Charles hated competition, from men or women, and Camilla realized right from the start that if their relationship was going to work she would have to play second fiddle to him.” Or put another way, Charles is so weak, spineless and self-centered that he was only attracted to an unglamorous nanny-figure who manipulated him and played him like a fiddle. Also: Charles was never the love of Camilla’s life.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.