Instead, as she celebrates her 79th birthday today, Camilla finds herself busier than she has ever been.
Speaking to hello!, Gyles Brandreth, a broadcaster, author and Camilla’s good friend, says: “Just as everybody else is beginning to wind down, they [the King and Queen] are having to wind up. You might think she could slow down a bit, but they are having to quicken the pace. But I never get the impression that she is doing it reluctantly.”
The author Catherine Mayer, who knows the Queen through her work with the Women of the World Foundation, tells us: “This is a woman who really was very happy not having a career, and who liked to potter and do things that interested her, and now suddenly she has this huge role. She’s lived a lot of her life in different directions to most of us.”
“Just as everybody else is beginning to wind down, they are having to wind up.”
Indeed, Camilla appears to be embracing this new phase of her life with vigour and enthusiasm. Having accompanied her husband on their recent state visit to the United States in April, she has thrown herself back into a busy schedule of official engagements back home, making appearances at Wimbledon and Royal Ascot as well as championing the causes she is passionate about.
© Getty ImagesLoyal supporter
Above all, she is focused on her role as the King’s most loyal supporter and confidante, whose constant and unwavering presence is the quiet power behind the throne.
“She is the person who can get him from a dark mood into the bright sunshine,” Catherine says. “A long time ago, Charles decided that Camilla was a non-negotiable in his life, not just because he’s happier with her, but because she is so essential to him that he really only functions at full capacity when she is part of his life.”
Gyles agrees: “I think she brings him contentment. He is at ease with himself, which makes him able to do what he does, with conviction and without anxiety. They are a superb partnership.”
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesShe made sure she was there for Harry and Meghan’s visit
Camilla’s loyal and protective nature was evident in her decision to join the King to host the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, for tea at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire home, earlier this month. The fact that her stepson had called her “dangerous” and a “villain” in his memoir, Spare, must have made for an awkward meeting, but she was undeterred.
“They are a superb partnership”
Meanwhile, she shares a warm relationship with the Prince and Princess of Wales, and she and Kate in particular get on well, both sharing a common goal of supporting their husbands and the Crown.
Camilla played the long game
Catherine, whose new book, Divide and Rule, examines the challenges faced by royal women past and present, marvels at the way Camilla has managed to turn around the public’s perception of her, from when she was considered – as Diana, Princess of Wales, herself said – the “third person” in Charles’s marriage to his first wife.
© Getty Images“People who are successful in the royal family are those who understand that it’s a long game – you can’t change public opinion overnight or even in a year,” says Catherine, who has also written a biography of Charles. “Camilla’s steadfastness is at the heart of it. The fact that she is the kind of person who can deal with the level of adversity that she had and not be pulled out of shape by it… that is astonishing.
“She has gone from being seen as a threat to the monarchy to being one of its absolute stalwarts.”
As she focuses on her job, Camilla has never been afraid to take on important causes, including supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence. She became the patron of the charity SafeLives in 2020 after meeting Diana Parkes, whose daughter Joanna was killed by her husband.
© Getty Images“Her Majesty the Queen has used her own voice for many years to help ensure that victims and survivors are seen, heard and believed, and she has encouraged the conversation needed to prevent abuse before it starts,” Tracey Bleakley, the charity’s interim chief executive officer, tells hello!. “What has always stood out is her willingness to listen.”
Gyles, who is a trustee and board member of Camilla’s literary charity, The Queen’s Reading Room, says: “I think what people have found is the total authenticity of it all. Her passion for those things is real, and I think people have recognised that.”
“She has gone from being seen as a threat to the monarchy to being one of its absolute stalwarts.”
Meanwhile, Catherine has often witnessed Camilla’s sense of humour firsthand.
Camilla has a wicked sense of humour
“I remember once I was with [the author] Kathy Lette, who had hurt her ankle and was walking with a crutch. Camilla came over and said, ‘Oh, what happened to you?’ and Kathy said, ‘I fell off my toy boy.’ And Camilla laughed till she was nearly sick.”
According to Gyles, who organised a star-studded lunch for Camilla’s 75th birthday, she sees birthdays as an opportunity to spend time with her children, Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, and her beloved grandchildren.
© Getty Images“I don’t think she sees birthdays as a big deal, but family is very important to her, so that is her kind of celebration,” he says. “When you say, ‘Next year is the big one,’ she pulls a face and says, ‘Thank you for reminding me.’
“I think the truth is, she’s in a good place, though when you say to her, ‘Well done, it’s going so well,’ she shrugs and says, ‘Well, on we go.’”
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