Here are some photos of Queen Camilla attending Day 2 of Cheltenham Festival, a multi-day horseracing event. Camilla wore a rich brown coat and her favorite (ugly) faux-fur hat. She also wore two amethyst-and-enamel pansy brooches which are apparently part of her private collection (she wore them before her marriage to Charles). Fun fact: apparently, interest in Cheltenham is declining at a steady clip. The BBC reports that the attendance on Wednesday – aka Queen Mother Champion Chase Day – was the smallest it’s been since 1993. The crowds at Cheltenham have been significantly down this week, to the point where organizers are panicking slightly about how they’re not growing their audience or attendance. Maybe because Camilla is the face of horse-racing these days? It used to be QEII, who was beloved in the horse and racing communities. Now people are like “Oh, Camilla is going to show up? Nevermind.”
Meanwhile, Camilla has spent the better part of two decades becoming a self-styled activist around violence against women. She’s patron of many domestic-violence charities, rape-crisis groups and women’s shelters. She has absolutely used that work to soften her image, but I always give her credit for taking on some difficult topics head-on, when she easily could have just gone for “animal shelters” and “tea parties.” In any case, Camilla is now making it known that she sent a personal letter to Gisele Pelicot, the French woman whose husband drugged her and invited dozens of strangers to rape her.
The Queen followed the case of Gisèle Pelicot and wrote a personal letter after the rape trial to commend her “extraordinary dignity and courage”. Camilla, 77, who has long been a campaigner against domestic abuse, was said to have been “tremendously affected” by the four-month rape trial that took place in Avignon, southern France, last year.
Pelicot’s husband, Dominique, 72, was jailed in December for 20 years after he secretly drugged his wife of 50 years and invited scores of men he had met online to rape her 200 times in her own home. Another 47 men were found guilty of rape and their sentences ranged from three to 15 years. Two men were found guilty of attempted rape and two were found guilty of sexual assault.
Pelicot, 72, waived her right to anonymity, explaining that she wanted “shame to change sides”, a phrase that was taken up and repeated by her many supporters across the world.
Camilla is understood to have followed the trial and been shocked by the abuse uncovered in court. Not wishing to cause additional distress, she asked Palace aides to ascertain whether a letter would be welcome. She then wrote to Pelicot to offer her support and her deepest sympathies.
A Palace source told Newsweek: “She was tremendously affected by the Madame Pelicot case in France and that lady’s extraordinary dignity and courage as she put herself in the public eye, because, as she rightly put it, why should she be made to feel like a victim or hide away in shame? She helped highlight a very significant societal problem despite all the personal suffering she’d been through. So, as a long-term supporter of survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, the Queen wrote to Madame Pelicot privately. It was very much her instigation and determination to write to express support from the highest level.”
I think it’s nice that Camilla wrote to Madame Pelicot privately and I’m sure Madame Pelicot received many personal letters from famous and non-famous women around the world. Her grace was extraordinary, and what happened to her was horrific. I wonder if Camilla expected Madame Pelicot to reveal that Camilla wrote to her, and when she didn’t, Camilla released this information?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
