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I’m a royal expert who has spent a lifetime watching the Windsors and a decade covering them. And yet, there is one thing I could never have imagined myself thinking – let alone writing.
Because although Camilla Parker Bowles began her royal journey as the future consort few, if any, wanted, I can see that she has become exactly the Queen the monarchy needs today.
And nowhere did that become more evident than when Queen Camilla accompanied King Charles during their recent visit to the Caribbean.
While caught in an unexpected torrential downpour in Antigua and Barbuda during the country’s independence celebrations on November 1, King Charles let his exasperation be known.
“Where’s the umbrella?” he repeatedly grumbled, growing visibly frustrated as it failed to arrive. But the mood quickly shifted when the monarch, 77, rejoined Queen Camilla, 79, on the dais, with Charles soon joining in as his wife laughed about their soaking.
Two days later, Charles was happy to publicly poke fun at his outburst during a speech at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting dinner.
“Although perhaps part of my role as Head of the Commonwealth is to provide an umbrella for you all…!” he quipped.
Why Queen Camilla is indispensable to King Charles
For me, these were among the most revealing moments of their Caribbean tour.
There are very few people who can get away with laughing at a King, and fewer still who can get him to laugh at himself. Camilla is one of them.
After more than 20 years of marriage, it has become clear that the woman once considered unsuitable for royal life has become indispensable to the man at its very heart.
Their relationship began in a way that caused undeniable pain, and nothing that has happened since erases that. But nor can we ignore the fact their love has stood the test of time.
After more than half a century in each other’s lives, Camilla is one who knows when Charles needs reassurance, when he needs someone quietly standing beside him and, as we saw in Antigua, when he simply needs someone to laugh with him when things don’t go to plan.
That matters. After waiting most of his life to become King, the first years of Charles’ reign have been more than challenging.
There has been his cancer diagnosis, Princess Catherine’s battle with the disease, the ongoing fallout from Prince Harry and Meghan’s departure and return and the scandals surrounding his brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
“He has a very strong support system in his wife, without her I think he would struggle,” royal expert Phil Dampier said.
How Camilla stepped out of Princess Diana’s shadow
Yet Camilla hasn’t simply stood in her husband’s shadow. She has quietly carved out her own role, including years of tireless work supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence.
I saw some of her humour up close during Their Majesties’ visit to Sydney in October 2024, when Camilla greeted the public after attending the Sunday service at St Thomas’ Anglican Church.
“I’ve got two hands,” she joked with the crowd before shaking with both, as dozens of hopefuls reached out to her.
Getty photographer Chris Jackson recently told me that Camilla has become one of his favourite royals to capture, recalling a visit to a women’s refuge in Kenya where she ended up dancing.
“She’s really got good energy to her,” Jackson explained. “I just love the fact she’s getting stuck in.”
Camilla will never be Diana, and nor does she try to be.
Almost three decades after her death, loving and admiring Diana doesn’t require us to dislike the woman who came after her.
There is room in royal history to respect both.
Read more expert opinion and analysis in WHO’s The Royal Verdict with Kylie Walters here.
