That she regrets that the photographer on duty has an old lady in front of his lens, the Duchess of Cornwall starts with a joke. Camilla, born Camilla Rosemary Shand, wife of Prince Charles, is rarely so candid in interviews. “Who really wants to be 75? But there’s nothing we can do about it.” And so the much-discussed lady decided to celebrate her birthday – on July 17th she turns 75 – with a photo shoot and an interview in the most famous fashion magazine in the world.
Heaven on earth
The conversation with British Vogue takes place in the garden room of Clarence House, the house in London where Camilla lives with Charles. Although the two don’t see each other very much. Just like with other couples, finding time for each other is not always the easiest task. “Still, we try to find a moment every day to discuss our day over a cup of tea,” says the duchess. “It’s great to catch up when we have some time. You know, the most fun is actually when we’re in the same room, each in a different corner, reading a book. It’s very relaxing because you know you don’t have to start a conversation, you just sit together.”
When Charles, the future monarch of Great Britain, is too busy to socialize with a book, Camilla finds it easy to find her way around. “My idea of heaven on earth is the tranquility of the countryside. I like to do a little gardening, take a walk and then snuggle up with a book. Also alone.”
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Teens with pierced ears
Another – slightly less peaceful – heaven is the company of her grandchildren. Camilla now has five of about the same age, between 12 and 14 years old. “They are teenagers. And I like to text them. It’s nice to learn something from very young people and to teach them something too. As it always has been.” The nice thing about being a grandmother, according to the Duchess, is that you can spoil the grandchildren. Sometimes she picks up one of the girls at the school gate. “It’s sometimes scary to see them come out with pierced ears, new makeup and clothes or colored hair.” Whether she herself does not want pierced ears, perhaps for her birthday? “The grandchildren would like to convince me, but no, nothing will pierce my ears.”
It may be a grandmother who loves her grandchildren, but there is nothing to indicate that Camilla is a typical ‘grandma’. At an age when most people have been in retirement for a while, Camilla has anything but an empty agenda. She travels around the country and beyond, attending official events. She does that with Charles, or alone. She takes her role as patron of the National Theater very seriously – a place she took over from Meghan Markle – and even attended a theater workshop in that capacity. She also regularly visits the charities she supports, including some shelters.
Viewed and Criticized
The latter is also reminiscent of the ambitions of the late Princess Diana, Charles’s former wife. A past that Camilla has been forced to struggle with for years, she admits. “I was under scrutiny for so long that the only option is to find a way to live with it. Nobody likes to be looked at all the time and, you know… to be criticized.”
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That early this year, in February, the Queen announced that she wants Camilla to also challenge the title of Queen was a huge boost. Actually, that’s just the rule that the king’s wife is referred to as ‘Queen Consort’. That was also the case with the mother and grandmother of the current Queen. But in the case of Camilla, who was blamed for the divorce from Charles and Diana at the time, her future title remained unclear for a long time. The Duchess herself divorced Andrew Parker Bowles, the man with whom she had two children, in 1955. But anyone who opened a newspaper or turned on the TV over the past few decades knew she had been in a relationship with the Prince of Wales before that. “Eventually you rise above it and move on. You have to, you have to move on with your life.”
And she continues. How will she celebrate her 75th birthday, if not with pierced ears? “There won’t be a lot of celebration, but I’ll be spending the day with family and friends.”
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