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LONDON (AP) — What a difference a few decades can make.
queen camillaOnce seen as the scourge of the House of Windsor, the woman at the heart of King Charles III’s doomed marriage to the late Princess Diana has become one of the monarchy’s most prominent emissaries.
With Carlos and Kate, Princess of WalesSidelined by illness, Camilla has stepped lightly into the void, increasing her appearance schedule and taking on the important role of keeping the royal family in the public eye.
“It’s been a remarkable transformation,” said Michael Cole, a royal commentator and former long-time BBC correspondent. “And I think Camilla, Queen Camilla, has certainly earned the respect that she’s getting. She…she has done a remarkably good job.”
Britain’s Queen Camilla leaves Westminster Abbey after her coronation ceremony, in London, Saturday, May 6, 2023. (Toby Melville, Pool via AP, file)
This has been especially important in recent weeks, as three of the most senior members of the royal family have been forced to take time off work.
The king has canceled his public engagements indefinitely after revealing he is receiving treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer. The news comes as the royals miss the energetic presence of Kate, who is recovering from abdominal surgery. Prince William also took time off to support his wife, although he has now returned to work.
Camilla has helped pick up the slack, demonstrating the importance of her rehabilitation to Charles and the royal family.
It took years for many in Britain to forgive Camilla, whose extramarital affair with Charles torpedoed his marriage to Diana, known as “the People’s Princess.” The glamorous young mother of Princes William and Harry died in a car accident in Paris in 1997, five years after her messy and public separation from Charles.
But the public mood has softened since Charles married the woman then known as Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005.
Camilla, 76, has taken on roles in more than 100 charities, championing issues ranging from promoting literacy to supporting victims of domestic violence and helping the elderly.
With a down-to-earth style and a self-deprecating sense of humor, he eventually won over many Britons.
Britain’s Queen Camilla takes a moment of reflection at the Salisbury Fountain, designed by British water sculptor William Pye, during a musical evening at Salisbury Cathedral to celebrate the work of local charities. The Queen will also meet the two conductors of the Grenadier Guards Band. and Band of The Rifles in Salisbury, England, on Thursday, February 8, 2024. (Chris Jackson, Pool via AP, file)
In a speech at the Foreign Press Association’s annual awards dinner in November, Camilla even won over a room full of journalists when she made a wry reference to her sometimes tense relationship with the media.
“There are journalists in my family, and even I myself have been the subject of one or two stories over the years,” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
But perhaps most importantly, Camilla’s presence seems to have made the king less distant and more human.
Unlike previous generations of royals who were in and out of the hospital alone, Charles left his recent treatment with Camilla behind, providing the support most people would expect from their spouses. Of course he would come to visit, why not?
A few days later, he was at a concert and stopped to talk to his supporters and let them know that the king was doing “extremely well.”
“She deserves a lot of credit,” said Sally Bedell Smith, author of “Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life,” published in 2017, five years before Charles became king. “After living a very traditional sort of upper-class life, he actually got the first job he ever had and did extremely well.”
But not everyone is a fan.
Prince Harry He alleges in his memoir, “Spare,” that Camilla burnished her reputation at his expense.
Britain’s King Charles III, from bottom left, Camilla, the Queen Consort, Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, watch as Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin is placed in the hearse after the state funeral at Westminster Abbey, central London, on Monday, September 1, 2019. October 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool, File)
Harry accused members of the royal family of “getting into bed with the devil,” providing journalists with information about him to get more favorable coverage for them. He highlighted Camilla’s efforts to rehabilitate her image among the British people after her affair with Charles.
“That made her dangerous because of the connections she was forging within the British press,” Harry told CBS at the time of the book’s publication. “There was an open willingness on both sides to exchange information. And with a family based on hierarchy, and with her on her way to being queen consort, there would be people or bodies abandoned in the street.”
Regardless of how she achieved her new status, Camilla has proven to be an invaluable asset to the royal family during the king’s hiatus.
On Valentine’s Day, she visited Kindred Studios, a creative space promoting arts, crafts and community cohesion in the Shepherd’s Bush area of London. He finished that task early in the afternoon. There were hours left until the day was over.
“His absence is putting a lot of pressure on the other members of the royal family, who are certainly up to the task,” Smith said. “William and (Prince) Edward, Camilla, obviously. I mean, Camilla has taken the lead in all of this and has performed admirably.”