Queen Camilla has taken on huge responsibilities within the Royal Family during the last few years.
In essence, she’s gone from hated to loved, and when King Charles and Kate Middleton received their respective cancer diagnoses, she and Prince William became the de-facto face of the monarchy.
Camilla and William have known each other for many years, with the former entering the latter’s life after his mother, Princess Diana, passed. In the beginning, the young boy had understandable difficulty accepting his father’s “new” love.
These days they have a healthy, loving relationship. Camilla will never be a mother to Prince William, yet she is nonetheless above him in the hierarchy. That said, one royal expert is now claiming the queen is “afraid” of her stepson and his influence.
Queen Camilla and Prince William have a long history together. While the future king and his brother, Prince Harry, most likely didn’t know anything about their father’s affair with Camilla when they were young, they surely know all about it today. The brothers went through a massive tragedy during their childhood when their mother, Princess Diana, passed away.
Queen Camilla & Prince William’s relationship
Diana’s passing left the brothers without a loving mother. Not long after, Camilla entered their lives, and would eventually become their stepmother. For the Queen Consort, the relationship with William and Harry – especially Harry – was complex.
The now-estranged Duke of Sussex recalled his first meeting with Camilla as “awkward and tense.” In Spare, he wrote that William had “long harbored suspicions about the Other Woman.”
In an interview with 60 Minutes, Harry revealed that he and his brother had even asked their father not to marry Camilla. In the end, they changed their minds on her.
“We didn’t think it was necessary, we thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person. That – surely that’s enough,” Harry told 60 Minutes. “We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her.”
Prince Harry’s first meeting with Camilla wasn’t a success, but things were different when she was introduced to Prince William.
At the time, William was studying at Eton, and had informed Charles that he’d be heading back to York House in London for the weekend.
Queen Camilla & Prince William’s first meeting
In her book Queen Consort: The Life of Queen Camilla, royal author Penny Junor claimed William’s sudden arrival caught his father off guard – and Camilla wasn’t extremely keen regarding the meeting. She even offered to leave before the young prince’s arrival, but Charles dismissed that notion as “ridiculous.”
Instead, he told his son that Camilla would be there when he arrived, and Camilla was “decidedly anxious.”
Charles let Camilla know that William had arrived and suggested to “get on with it.” Camilla and William spent about 30 minutes getting to know each other, with Camilla reportedly saying afterwards: “I need a gin and tonic.”
William and Harry lived at Highgrove House with their mother all their childhood. When she passed away, Charles decided to move the family to York House, which, according to Penny Junor, sadly meant they had “no memories for them of their mother.”
It didn’t take long before the royal PR machine was working for William, Harry, and Camilla, as the next step was for them to be seen publicly with the woman who would become their stepmother. In Queen Consort: The Life of Queen Camilla, PR expert PR expert Mark Bolland told Junor that it was “something awkward” initially.
“It was difficult for them; it was a natural thing. You want your mum, you don’t want her, and she had her own family. To be fair to Camilla, she never tried to be mummy, but she was the ‘other woman,’ and she was there taking daddy’s time,” Bolland said.
Queen Camilla’s special trick to remind Prince William & Kate Middleton of their place
Today, Prince William and Queen Camilla have a great relationship; the same goes for her and Kate Middleton. However, while Prince William is a future king, he’s not a king now. Currently Camilla is queen and, therefore, higher up in the hierarchy than the Prince and Princess of Wales; thus, William and Kate should be careful about making her too frustrated.
Being a stepmother could mean Camilla has difficulty being strict with William, but it appears she has clarified that she won’t accept certain things.
In his book Catherine, The Princess of Wales: The Biography, author Robert Jobson claims that Queen Camilla often subdues William to remind him of the royal hierarchy when she feels he isn’t respecting his father. Once, she wasn’t content with just telling them, and acted in quite a unique way to remind both William and Kate who was in charge.
Jobson revealed the moment in his book when the Prince and Princess of Wales asked to join King Charles and Queen Camilla’s security convoy from Windsor Castle. However, William and Kate were late, leaving them waiting.
“When Charles was kept waiting several minutes for the couple, Camilla insisted they go without them. As William and Catherine emerged, all they could see were the blue flashing lights of the motorbikes disappearing in the distance,” Jobson wrote in Catherine, The Princess of Wales: The Biography.
While Camilla and William’s relationship has had its ups and downs, just like any other, they have put on brave faces and endured the difficulties together.
Queen Camilla & Prince William was left “nursing the crown”
They stepped up as partners and working Royal Family members with the recent illness of both King Charles and Kate Middleton, and according to former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, this has brought Camilla and William “much closer.”
“They have been left, almost literally, nursing the crown while the King and the Princess recover,” Bond told OK!, per the Mirror. “When the late Queen died, William spoke of how she had been at his side at ‘the happiest moments’ and ‘saddest days of his life’. Now, Camilla is sharing some of those times with him and it must surely cement their relationship.”
Bond added: “There are so very few people that a senior royal can trust absolutely… and Camilla must now be one of that number for William. And I’m sure it is a two-way street with William offering moral support to Camilla as well.”
Earlier this summer, one event made headlines regarding Camilla and William’s relationship, as it was revealed that the future king made the decision to remove Camilla’s sister, Annabel Elliot, from the Duchy of Cornwall paywall.
She had served as King Charles’ chief interior designer for almost two decades, and it’s not strange to believe that it could have affected William and Camilla’s relationship.
However, according to royal expert Christopher Andersen, the author of The King: The Life of Charles III, it wasn’t a “snub at all. Instead, the royal expert argues that it was an “inevitable” business decision.
“William wants his own team in there,” Andersen told US Magazine.
“They never felt comfortable opening up to her in any real way”
Since Charles and Kate Middleton received their cancer diagnoses, both Camilla and William have grown closer, a family friend of the queen told the news outlet.
“William has warmed up to Camilla over time,” the source said, while another source added that the duo have “a familial relationship these days.”
“There’s a lot to overcome. William and Harry had always distrusted Camilla and felt resentment toward her because of their devotion to their mother. They never felt comfortable opening up to her in any real way,” the source suggested.
At the same time, the feud with Prince Harry is also a key factor in Queen Camilla and Prince William cozying up together. A source told US Magazine that since Harry left in 2020, the queen and future king have worked hard to build an easy-going relationship.
“It brought them closer,” the source continued.
“There’s a lot to overcome. William and Harry had always distrusted Camilla and felt resentment toward her because of their devotion to their mother. They never felt comfortable opening up to her in any real way.”
In the US Magazine article, a family friend of Camilla’s stated that she has Kate Middleton to thank for William’s change of heart regarding his stepmother.
Royal expert claims Queen Camilla is a “little afraid” of Prince William
“It was really Kate who warmed William to Camilla. She’s never been dismissive of Camilla and always treated her with kindness,” the source said.
The family friend concluded: “They both like the fact that Camilla’s normal and makes Charles less stuffy. Kate likes her because she brings a real-life relatability into the family. She’s not all about the courtiers waiting on hand and foot. Camilla’s real like Kate is.”
However, not everyone agrees with that assessment. Royal expert Christopher Andersen claims that from the beginning, Camilla was actually against William and Kate ending up together at all. Meanwhile, the expert and author suggests that, to this day, William isn’t a big fan of Camilla but “tolerates” her. Meanwhile, he claims Camilla “has always been a little afraid of William.”
“Camilla’s a believer in aristocracy [and] kind of a snob,” Andersen told US Magazine, adding that the now-queen didn’t think Kate “was of their class.”
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