Queen Camilla

• 1. Introduction

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  Queen Camilla, born Camilla Rosemary Shand, is the second wife of King Charles III and queen of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. In 1999, around 200 photographers and reporters from across the world crowded in to watch her arrive at a birthday party for her sister at the Ritz London Hotel. They were not there for the sister. It was the first time Camilla and the then Prince of Wales had appeared in public together, after years in which the press had vilified her. Her relationship with Charles had drawn scrutiny from around the world.

  How does a woman who grew up in the Sussex countryside end up at the centre of that glare? What changed between that evening and the day she was crowned beside the king? And what has she done with the platform that came with the role?

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• 2. Shand to Parker Bowles

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  Camilla Rosemary Shand was born on the 17th of July 1947 at King's College Hospital in London. She was the eldest child of Major Bruce Shand and his wife Rosalind. Bruce had left the army for business. He became a partner in Block, Grey and Block, a wine merchant on South Audley Street in Mayfair, and later joined Ellis, Son and Vidler of Hastings and London. Rosalind was a Cubitt by birth, the daughter of the 3rd Baron Ashcombe. In the 1960s and 1970s she volunteered at the Chailey Heritage Foundation, which helps young children with disabilities, near the family's Sussex home. Camilla was baptised on the 1st of November at St. Peter's Church in Firle. She grew up with a younger sister, Annabel Elliot, and a younger brother, Mark Shand.

  The Laines, an 18th-century country house at Plumpton in East Sussex, shared the family's year with their London house in South Kensington. Her father read to her often, and the habit made her an avid reader. Dogs and cats filled the household. She learned to ride at Pony Club camps and went on to win rosettes at community gymkhanas. She says her childhood "was perfect in every way".

  The biographer Gyles Brandreth notes that people often describe her as having had an "Enid Blyton sort of childhood". He thinks she may have shared some traits with George, the tomboy among the Famous Five. The reality, he argues, was grander. Blyton's children were essentially middle class, while the Shands belonged without question to the upper class. They had help in the house, in the garden and with the children. They also opened their garden for the local Conservative Party Association summer fete.

  At the age of five, Camilla was sent to Dumbrells, a co-educational school in the village of Ditchling. From the age of ten she attended Queen's Gate School near her London home, where classmates called her "Milla". The singer Twinkle, whose real name was Lynn Ripley, studied alongside her. She described a girl with "inner strength" who exuded "magnetism and confidence". The writer Penelope Fitzgerald taught French at the school and remembered Camilla as "bright and lively".

  Her formal schooling was short. In 1964 she left Queen's Gate with a single O-level, because her parents did not make her stay long enough for A-levels. At 16 she went to the Mont Fertile finishing school in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. She then spent six months at the British Institute in Paris, studying French and French literature.

  On the 25th of March 1965, she was a debutante in London, one of 311 that year. After leaving home she shared a small flat in Kensington with her friend Jane Wyndham, a niece of the decorator Nancy Lancaster. She then moved to a larger flat in Belgravia. There she lived first with her landlady Lady Moyra Campbell, daughter of the 4th Duke of Abercorn, and later with Virginia Carington, daughter of the 6th Baron Carrington. Virginia was married to Camilla's uncle Lord Ashcombe from 1973 until 1979. In 2005 she became a special aide to Camilla and Charles.

  Camilla worked as a secretary for several firms in the West End. She also worked as a receptionist at Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler, a decorating firm in Mayfair. She was reportedly fired from that job after arriving late, having been to a dance. Her spare time went to riding, fishing, horticulture and gardening. She loved painting enough to take private lessons from an artist, although most of her work "ended up in the bin".

  A maternal great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, was a mistress of King Edward VII. Camilla's ancestry is mostly English, with Dutch, Scottish, Colonial American, French and French-Canadian forebears as well. Her Dutch line runs back to Arnold Joost van Keppel, whom King William III created Earl of Albemarle in 1696. Through Anne van Keppel, Countess of Albemarle and a granddaughter of King Charles II, she descends from the Houses of Stuart and Bourbon. Her Scottish line leads to King Robert III, through his daughter Mary. Another branch reaches Hamilton, Ontario, where Sophia Mary MacNab was the daughter of Sir Allan MacNab, prime minister of the Province of Canada before Confederation. Sophia's son George Keppel stands beside Alice among Camilla's maternal great-grandparents. Through Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle, Camilla and Charles are ninth cousins once removed.

  In the late 1960s, Camilla met Andrew Parker Bowles, a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals, through his younger brother Simon. Simon worked for her father's wine firm in Mayfair. After years of an on-and-off relationship, their engagement was announced in The Times in 1973. The biographer Sally Bedell Smith wrote that their parents sent out the announcement without telling the couple, which forced Parker Bowles to propose.

  On the 4th of July 1973, Camilla, aged 25, married Andrew, aged 33, in a Catholic ceremony at the Guards' Chapel at Wellington Barracks in London. The wedding dress came from the British fashion house Bellville Sassoon. The bridesmaids included Lady Emma Herbert, Andrew's goddaughter. About 800 guests attended what was considered the "society wedding of the year". Royal guests included Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

  Bolehyde Manor in Allington, Wiltshire, became the couple's first home, and they later bought Middlewick House in Corsham. Their son Tom was born in 1974 and their daughter Laura in 1978. Both children were raised in their father's Catholic faith, particularly while their paternal grandmother Ann Parker Bowles was alive. Camilla stayed Anglican and never converted. Laura attended a Catholic girls' school but married in an Anglican church. Tom went to Eton rather than Ampleforth College, where his father had studied, and was married outside the Catholic Church. Like his father, Tom is in remainder to the Earldom of Macclesfield.

  In December 1994, after 21 years of marriage, the couple began divorce proceedings on the grounds that they had lived separately for years. The High Court Family Division in London heard the petition and granted it in January 1995. The divorce was finalised on the 3rd of March 1995. A year later Andrew married Rosemary Pitman, who died in 2010. One more thread ties the family to the monarch: Tom is a godson of Charles, now King Charles III.

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• 3. Charles and the Press

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  Mid-1971 is when Camilla reportedly first met Prince Charles. A year earlier, Andrew Parker Bowles had ended his relationship with her and begun courting Princess Anne. Camilla and Charles moved in the same social circle and sometimes attended the same events, but they had never formally met. A popular story says they first met at a polo match. Brandreth disagrees. He says their friend Lucia Santa Cruz introduced them at her home.

  They became close friends and then a couple, and their romance was well known within their circle. Polo matches at Smith's Lawn in Windsor Great Park, where Charles often played, became a regular meeting place. They also belonged to a set at Annabel's in Berkeley Square. Charles visited Plumpton to meet her family, and he introduced her to some of his own. In early 1973 he went overseas with the Royal Navy. The relationship was put on hold and then ended abruptly.

  Biographers disagree about why. Robert Lacey, in his 2008 book Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, argues that Charles met Camilla too early and never asked her to wait while he was away. Sarah Bradford's 2007 book Diana reports a member of Lord Mountbatten's close circle saying Mountbatten sent Charles overseas on purpose. The aim was to end the romance and clear the way for an engagement to Mountbatten's granddaughter Amanda Knatchbull. Some sources say the Queen Mother disapproved because she hoped Charles would marry one of the Spencer granddaughters of her close friend Lady Fermoy. Others suggest that Camilla preferred Andrew Parker Bowles, or that Charles had decided not to marry before he turned 30.

  Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was Charles's cousin and godmother. She said some palace courtiers at the time judged Camilla unsuitable as a future consort. In 2005 she remarked: "With hindsight, you can say that Charles should have married Camilla when he first had the chance. They were ideally suited, we know that now. But it wasn't possible." She added: "It wouldn't have been possible, not then." The majority of royal biographers agree that permission would not have been given had Charles asked.

  In August 1979, the Provisional Irish Republican Army assassinated Lord Mountbatten. Charles was grief-stricken and reportedly relied heavily on Camilla Parker Bowles for solace. Rumours spread among friends of the Parker Bowleses and in polo-playing circles that the old romance had resumed. A source close to Parker Bowles confirmed that by 1980 they were lovers again, and royal staff have said it began earlier. Her husband Andrew reportedly approved, while having numerous lovers himself. According to the BBC, she was the Prince's official escort at the Zimbabwean independence celebrations in 1980. Even so, Charles soon began a relationship with Lady Diana Spencer, whom he married in 1981.

  The affair became public knowledge about a decade later, with the 1992 publication of Diana: Her True Story. In 1993 came the scandal known as "Tampongate" or "Camillagate". An intimate phone call between Parker Bowles and Charles had been secretly recorded, and the transcripts appeared in the tabloid press. The book and the tape damaged Charles's public image at once, and the media vilified Parker Bowles.

  In 1994, Charles spoke about the relationship in Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role, made with Jonathan Dimbleby. He told Dimbleby: "Mrs. Parker Bowles is a great friend of mine... a friend for a very long time. She will continue to be a friend for a very long time." He also admitted that the relationship had been rekindled only after his own marriage had "irretrievably broken down" in 1986.

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• 4. Winning Public Acceptance

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  After both of their divorces, Charles declared his relationship with Parker Bowles "non-negotiable". He knew it was attracting a great deal of negative publicity. So he asked Mark Bolland, whom he had hired in 1995 to refurbish his own image, to raise her public profile as well.

  In July 1997, Parker Bowles was in a head-on car accident while driving to Highgrove House. Neither she nor the other driver suffered any major injuries. She began to appear occasionally as Charles's unofficial companion at events. In 2000 she went with him to Scotland for a number of official engagements. In 2001 she became president of an osteoporosis charity, which introduced her to the public.

  At the 60th birthday party of the former Greek king Constantine II in 2000, Parker Bowles met Queen Elizabeth II for the first time since the relationship had become public. Observers read the meeting as an apparent seal of approval. After more appearances at public and private venues, the Queen invited her to the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002. There she sat in the royal box behind the Queen for a concert at Buckingham Palace. Charles reportedly paid privately for two full-time security staff to protect her.

  In 2003 she moved into Clarence House, Charles's household and official residence. In 2004 she joined him at almost all of his official events, including a high-profile visit to the annual highland games in Scotland. The media speculated about when an engagement would be announced. Polls in the United Kingdom showed overall support for a marriage.

  Not everyone relented. Supporters of Diana wrote to national newspapers to air their views, especially after the wedding plans were announced. Internet trolls later parodied that sentiment on Facebook and TikTok with fake fan pages and accounts devoted to Diana. Public standing has since shifted. In 2023 The Independent named Camilla the most influential woman of the year in its Influence List, and she appeared on it again in 2024-2025 and 2026.

  On the 10th of February 2005, Clarence House announced the engagement of Camilla Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales. Her ring was a square-cut diamond with three diamond baguettes on each side. It was believed to have been given to Charles's grandmother when she gave birth to his mother. Charles was the future supreme governor of the Church of England, so marrying a divorcee was controversial. Even so, the Queen, the government and the Church of England consented. The Queen, Tony Blair and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams each offered best wishes in statements to the media.

  In the two months after the announcement, Clarence House received 25,000 letters, with "95 or 99 per cent being supportive". It also received 908 hate letters. The more threatening and personal ones were sent to the police for investigation.

  The wedding was meant to take place on the 8th of April 2005, as a civil ceremony at Windsor Castle followed by a blessing at St George's Chapel. A civil marriage there would have required a licence, which the castle did not have. A condition of such a licence is that the venue stays available for a year to anyone wishing to marry there. The royal family did not want that, so the ceremony moved to the town hall at Windsor Guildhall. On the 4th of April the date slipped by one day, so that Charles and some invited dignitaries could attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

  The marriage ceremony took place on the 9th of April 2005. The parents of Charles and Camilla did not attend. Instead, Camilla's son Tom and Charles's son Prince William acted as witnesses. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh did attend the service of blessing, and afterwards the Queen held a reception for the newlyweds at Windsor Castle. The performers included the St George's Chapel Choir, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott. The Marinsky Theatre Trust in St. Petersburg brought the Belarusian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk to the United Kingdom to sing a special song for the couple. The newlyweds then travelled to Birkhall, Charles's country home in Scotland, and carried out their first public duties together during the honeymoon.

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• 5. Duchess to Queen

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  As Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla automatically became the second highest woman in the British order of precedence, behind only Queen Elizabeth II. In her other realms she typically ranked fifth or sixth, after the Queen, the relevant viceroy, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales. For private occasions, the Queen reportedly altered the order "on blood principles", placing the Duchess fourth, after herself, Princess Anne and Princess Alexandra. Within two years, the Queen had lent Camilla the Greville Tiara, which once belonged to the Queen Mother. She also granted her the badge of the Royal Family Order of Elizabeth II.

  Her title was itself a compromise. After the wedding she was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, and in Scotland she was the Duchess of Rothesay. Legally she was Princess of Wales, but she took the feminine form of Charles's highest subsidiary title, Duke of Cornwall. It was a concession to low public opinion. In 2021, Prince Philip died and Charles inherited his titles, so Camilla formally became Duchess of Edinburgh until the accession the following year.

  Clarence House said at the 2005 wedding that she intended to be known as princess consort once Charles became king. No legal or historical precedent existed for that title, and under common law she would be queen. Rising public acceptance let the pledge be quietly shelved. In her 2022 Accession Day message, Elizabeth II stated it was her "sincere wish" for Camilla to be known as queen consort.

  Her first solo engagement as duchess was a visit to Southampton General Hospital. In June 2005 she attended Trooping the Colour for the first time and appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace afterwards. Her first overseas tour came in November 2005, to the United States, where she met George W. and Laura Bush at the White House. She and Charles then went to New Orleans to see the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and meet residents whose lives it had upended.

  More tours followed. In March 2006 the couple visited Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India. In 2008 they toured the Caribbean, Japan, Brunei and Indonesia. In 2009 they visited Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy and Germany, and at the Holy See they met Pope Benedict XVI. In August 2011 Camilla went with Charles to Tottenham after the London riots. They returned in February 2012 to meet local shop owners six months on. At the 2012 Melbourne Cup in Australia, she presented the cup to the winner.

  In 2013 the couple visited Jordan and toured camps for Syrian refugees. In May of that year Camilla attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time, and she made her first solo trip outside the United Kingdom, to Paris. In March 2019 they toured Cuba, becoming the first British royalty to visit the country. In January 2020 she represented the United Kingdom in Poland at commemorations marking 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Between 2005 and 2022, she completed 3,886 engagements.

  Health and mishaps sometimes interrupted the schedule. In March 2007 it was confirmed that she had undergone a hysterectomy. On a tour of Eastern Europe in early 2010, a trapped nerve in her back left her unable to carry out her engagements. In April 2010 she fractured her left leg while hill walking in Scotland. In November 2010 student protesters attacked the car carrying her and Charles, and the couple were unharmed. In February 2022 she tested positive for COVID-19, four days after Charles had done so.

  On the 9th of April 2012, the couple's seventh wedding anniversary, the Queen appointed Camilla to the Royal Victorian Order. In 2015 Charles commissioned a pub in Poundbury village to be named after her, and the Duchess of Cornwall Inn opened in 2016. On the 9th of June 2016 she became a member of the Privy Council. On the 1st of January 2022, she was made a Royal Lady of the Garter.

  On the 8th of September 2022, Charles became king on the death of Elizabeth II, and Camilla became queen consort. In his first address to the nation, Charles paid tribute to his "darling wife" for "the loving help and steadfast devotion to duty". On the 10th of September, she served as a witness with her stepson William at the Accession Council, where Charles was proclaimed king. She then retired the traditional role of lady-in-waiting. In its place she created the queen's companion, a more occasional and less formal post. Companions assist at official engagements but do not reply to letters or handle day-to-day planning. She named six, including the Marchioness of Lansdowne, Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen, Jane von Westenholz, Lady Sarah Keswick, Lady Brooke and Sarah Troughton.

  The style "Her Majesty The Queen Consort" distinguished her from the recently deceased Elizabeth II. Camilla was crowned alongside Charles on the 6th of May 2023 at Westminster Abbey in London. Since then she has been styled "Her Majesty The Queen", as past queens consort were. On the 16th of June 2023, the King appointed her to the Order of the Thistle. On the 5th of July she went with him to St Giles' Cathedral for the national service of thanksgiving, where the Honours of Scotland were presented to him. That month it was also announced that, unlike Prince Philip, she would receive no Parliamentary annuity. Her activities are funded through the Sovereign Grant instead.

  In March 2023 she went with Charles to Germany, his first foreign visit as monarch. State visits to France and Kenya followed in September and October. In November she stood at his side for his first State Opening of Parliament as Sovereign.

  The King's cancer diagnosis in 2024 meant the Queen deputised for him at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. She did the same at the Royal Maundy at Worcester Cathedral, where she became the first consort to hand out the ceremonial coins. In June the couple attended the 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day in Normandy. In October they toured Australia and Samoa. In November she cancelled several engagements because of a chest infection, later revealed to be a form of pneumonia.

  On the 9th of April 2025, their 20th wedding anniversary, the King and Queen made a surprise visit to the Vatican while in Italy. They met Pope Francis at Casa Santa Marta, where he was recovering from pneumonia, although a Vatican visit had earlier been cancelled. Francis died 12 days later. In May 2025 she accompanied Charles on a two-day visit to Canada and was sworn in as a member of the King's Privy Council for Canada. In July the King appointed her Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, the first woman to hold the title. In September acute sinusitis forced her to withdraw from the funeral of the Duchess of Kent. In October she went with Charles on a state visit to the Holy See.

  In 2026 she became the first female member of the royal family to join the Garrick Club. In April of that year she accompanied the King on a four-day state visit to the United States.

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• 6. Causes and Campaigns

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  The Queen is patron or president of more than 100 charities and organisations. She is honorary commodore-in-chief of the Royal Navy Medical Service. In January 2012 she visited the training ship HMS Excellent to award medals to naval medical teams returning from Afghanistan. In February 2013 she was appointed Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen, a ceremonial role that involves conferring degrees, and took up the office in June. She is the first woman to hold the post and the only member of the royal family to do so since it was created in 1860.

  In 2015 she was announced as president of the Women of the World Festival, which celebrates the achievements of women and girls and examines the obstacles they face. In March 2022 she became patron of London's National Theatre, a role previously held by her stepdaughter-in-law Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. In January 2024 she became the first royal patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK. In May 2024, after a major review of royal patronages, she took on 15 new ones, including the Army Benevolent Fund, the Royal Literary Fund, the Royal Foundation of St Katharine and the Queen's Nursing Institute.

  Osteoporosis has been her longest-running cause. Her mother, Rosalind, died from the disease in July 1994, and her maternal grandmother had died of it in 1986. In 1994 Camilla joined the National Osteoporosis Society, and in 1997 she became its patron. In 2002 she launched a mini book, A Skeleton Guide to a Healthy You, Vitamins and Minerals, to help women protect themselves from the disease.

  The following month, she joined 13 eminent women at a roundtable in Lisbon on barriers to reimbursement for diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis. The International Osteoporosis Foundation organised it, and Queen Rania of Jordan hosted. There Camilla made her first public speech. In 2004 she attended another conference, in Dublin, organised by the Irish Osteoporosis Society. The following year she visited the United States National Institutes of Health in Maryland to give a presentation to high-profile health figures.

  In 2006 she led 90 children and people with osteoporosis on a 10-mile walk and climb around Loch Muick on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. The Big Bone Walk raised 200,000 pounds and continues almost every year. By 2006 she had spoken at more than 60 functions on the disease and had opened bone scanning units and osteoporosis centres. In 2011 she played herself in the BBC Radio drama The Archers to raise the profile of the disease. In 2013 she teamed up with the television series Strictly Come Dancing to raise funds. She also takes part almost every year in World Osteoporosis Day, on the 20th of October.

  Awards followed. In 2005 she received an Ethel LeFrak award from an American charity, and in 2007 the Kohn Foundation Award from the National Osteoporosis Society. In July 2007 she opened the Duchess of Cornwall Centre for Osteoporosis at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro. The same year King's College London gave her an honorary fellowship. In 2009 the society created The Duchess of Cornwall's Award, later renamed The Queen's Award for Osteoporosis. In 2016 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southampton. In 2019 the society was renamed the Royal Osteoporosis Society.

  In 2009 Camilla visited nine rape crisis centres and heard accounts from survivors. That experience led her to advocate for victims of rape and sexual abuse. She often speaks to victims at a rape crisis centre in Croydon and visits other centres around the United Kingdom and on overseas tours. In 2008, in a meeting with the then mayor of London Boris Johnson, and later on a BBC Radio 4 programme in 2025, she recounted an incident from her teenage years. At 16 or 17, on a train to Paddington, a man assaulted her. She defended herself with her shoe and reported him to the authorities, and he was arrested.

  In 2010, alongside Boris Johnson, she opened a centre for rape victims in Ealing, West London. It later expanded to Hillingdon, Fulham, Hounslow and Hammersmith. In 2011 she opened the Oakwood Place Essex Sexual Assault Referral Centre at Brentwood Community Hospital. She is patron of the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, which provides home security for victims of crime and domestic abuse, and of SafeLives, a charity that campaigns against domestic abuse.

  In 2013 she held a meeting at Clarence House that brought together rape victims and support groups. Keir Starmer, then Director of Public Prosecutions, and Home Secretary Theresa May, both future prime ministers, were guests. Clarence House called it the first meeting of high-profile figures to focus exclusively on rape and sexual abuse. At the event she introduced a plan to give victims about 750 wash-bags, packed with luxury toiletries by her staff. The idea came after a visit to a centre in Derbyshire, where she asked victims what would help them feel at ease after forensic examinations. In 2013 she also opened The Rowan, a sexual assault referral centre at Antrim Area Hospital, the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.

  In March 2016, on a tour of the Western Balkans, she visited UNICEF programmes in Montenegro. There she discussed child sexual abuse and previewed an app designed to protect children from online abuse. In 2017 she partnered with the retail and pharmacy chain Boots on a line of wash-bags for assault referral centres across the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it has donated more than 50,000 filled wash-bags.

  In May 2020 she supported the SafeLives campaign Reach In, which encourages people to look out for others who may be suffering domestic violence. In July 2020 she guest-edited The Emma Barnett Show on BBC Radio 5 Live, which featured conversations on domestic violence. In September 2021 she became patron of the Mirabel Centre, Nigeria's first sexual assault referral centre. In October 2021 she spoke at the launch of Shameless, a project to educate people about sexual violence. After the murder of Sarah Everard, she expressed shock and urged men and women to break down the "culture of silence" around sexual assault.

  In November 2022 she hosted her first Buckingham Palace reception as queen to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, during the United Nations 16 Days of Activism campaign. She was joined by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Queen Rania of Jordan, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska. Her work with survivors was covered in the ITV documentary Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors in November 2024. In 2025 she sent the French rape survivor Gisele Pelicot a letter praising her "extraordinary dignity and courage". The following year she invited Pelicot to meet her at Clarence House.

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• 7. Books and Beyond

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  In 2013, at an event for the National Literacy Trust, Camilla gave a speech on the cause closest to her as a lifelong reader. She said: "I firmly believe in the importance of igniting a passion for reading in the next generation." She also said "we need more Literacy Heroes to keep inspiring young people to find the pleasure and power of reading for themselves." She is patron of the National Literacy Trust and other literacy charities. She often reads to young children at schools, libraries and children's organisations, and she joins in International Literacy Day and World Book Day.

  In 2011 she donated to the Evening Standard's literacy campaign and replaced the Duke of Edinburgh as patron of BookTrust. Since 2014 she has been patron of the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition, run by the Royal Commonwealth Society, and she launches it each year. Since 2015 she has been involved with 500 Words, a BBC Radio 2 competition for children, and in 2018 she became its honorary judge. Since 2019 she has supported Poetry Together, Gyles Brandreth's initiative to bring younger and older generations together through poetry recitation.

  In January 2021 she launched the Duchess of Cornwall's Reading Room, an online club for readers and writers. In January 2022 members joined her in promoting the planting of books in phone box libraries across the United Kingdom. In February 2023 the initiative was relaunched as a charity, the Queen's Reading Room. Its first festival was held at Hampton Court Palace on the 11th of June, with Judi Dench, Richard E. Grant, Robert Harris and Kate Mosse among the guests. The festival has since become annual, and in March 2025 she launched the Queen's Reading Room Medal for people who foster reading in their communities.

  In October 2021 she became patron of Silver Stories, a charity that links young people with the elderly by encouraging them to read stories over the telephone. In May 2022 she became patron of Book Aid International, a role Prince Philip had held from 1966 until his death in 2021. In July 2022, ahead of her 75th birthday, she launched the Birthday Books Project. It aimed to provide wellbeing-themed mini libraries at 75 primary schools in disadvantaged areas of the United Kingdom. In 2023 she received a Gold Blue Peter badge for her work on reading.

  In May 2023 she opened the first Coronation library at Shirehampton Primary School in Bristol. Fifty such libraries were planned for children in communities with low literacy across the United Kingdom in 2023 and 2024. In September 2023 she launched the Entente Litteraire Prize with Brigitte Macron at the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris. It recognises Young Adult fiction and lets British and French readers share a literary experience. In January 2024, twenty new manuscripts by different authors were added to the miniature library of Queen Mary's Dolls' House, as part of the Modern-Day Miniature Library project she headed.

  Animals have been another constant. Camilla is patron of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and president of Brooke, and she often visits animal shelters. She once owned two Jack Russell Terriers named Rosie and Tosca. In 2011 and 2012 she adopted two rescue puppies of the same breed from Battersea, Beth and Bluebell, followed by another rescue named Moley in 2025. In 2012 she opened two veterinary facilities at the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences at Langford in Somerset.

  In 2015 she worked with the department store Fortnum and Mason to sell 250 jars of honey from bees in her private garden in Wiltshire. The jars cost 20 pounds each and sold out in two weeks. The proceeds went to the Medical Detection Dogs charity, of which she is a patron. Each year since, she has sent a limited edition of honey to Fortnum and Mason, with the proceeds donated to her other charities.

  She is patron of Emmaus UK, which works against poverty and homelessness. In 2013, during her solo trip to Paris, she saw the work the charity does in that city. Every year around Christmas she visits Emmaus communities across the United Kingdom. She is also a staunch supporter of credit unions, which she calls a "real force for change in the financial landscape, serve the people, not profit". She annually hosts disabled and terminally ill children from Helen and Douglas House and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity for lunch at Clarence House, where they also decorate the Christmas tree.

  In March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she made a "substantial" donation to the Daily Mail's refugee campaign. In February 2023 she and Charles donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee, which was helping victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquakes.

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• 8. Fashion and Fame

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  Richard Blackwell put Camilla at the top of his list of "Ten Worst-Dressed Women" in 1994. Her name appeared on it again in 1995-2001 and 2006. In the years after her marriage she developed her own style and tried outfits by notable designers. She is said to prefer "signature tea and shirt dress styles" in tones of nude, white and navy, with round necklines. Her jewellery collection has also drawn praise.

  In 2018, Tatler named her among Britain's best dressed people and credited her hats with giving "millinery a good name". In 2023, CNN commented that she had honed her public image partly through the soft power of fashion. Charles and Camilla topped Tatler's Social Power Index in 2022 and 2023, and in 2024 the magazine listed her among the most glamorous European royals.

  In July 2022 she took part in her first solo magazine shoot, for British Vogue. It took place at Clarence House, and the outfits came from her own wardrobe. In 2023 British Vogue named her among The Vogue 25, which annually celebrates influential women pushing British society forwards. In May 2024, answering an enquiry from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Buckingham Palace said Camilla would no longer procure any new fur garments.

  On screen, Emerald Fennell and Olivia Williams have played Camilla at different stages of her life in the Netflix series The Crown. Fennell's performance in the fourth season, in 2020, earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Haydn Gwynne played her in the sitcom The Windsors.

  In 2024, to celebrate her role as President of The WOW Foundation and its work empowering girls and women, Barbie created a one-of-a-kind doll in her likeness.

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