“The Woman Behind the King: Queen Camilla’s Silent Sacrifice Behind King Charles III’s Public Charm”

There’s a particular way British shires’ women of a certain age and type walk when performing the day’s duties. Their shoulders are squared and tensed, as if approaching a fence while out hunting; their heads are tilted forward, with legs slightly stiff but purposeful. Their beady eyes are constantly scanning for rabbits in the lettuce patch, an unruly terrier or a farmer’s absconded sheep. My mother-in-law was of this magnificent ilk and so, I observed, is Queen Camilla as I watched her walk across the White House lawn with Melania Trump. They dutifully trod a couple of footsteps behind their menfolk, both dressed like mother-of-the-bride at a stiflingly formal wedding, condemned to the largely silent role of consort.

Melania, you trust, will one day spring free from the gilded cage of being First Lady. No such salvation awaits Camilla, who is trapped in ermine-lined fetters for life when it’s clear she’d much rather be taking a brisk stroll through bluebell woods, or curled up with a novel. But we should all be grateful she chose love after the Waleses’ ill-fated marriage ended (not to minimise her role in that heartbreak, but there’s surely some statute of limitations on very human failings), because it’s clear that behind King Charles III’s ease, bonhomie and skilled diplomacy there’s one woman working hard to keep him happy. A wife who has recently supported him through the hell of cancer treatment.

It’s hardly a secret within Buckingham Palace that Camilla has a unique ability to transform a sometimes tricky, petulant man (remember the leaking ink-pen incident at Hillsborough Castle: “I can’t bear this bloody thing… what they do every stinking time”) into a calmer, better-regulated one. When you watch a good-humoured, funny, sage Charles III charm the cynics of Washington, you can be sure his consort is quietly working overtime behind the scenes to ensure he has the exact conditions (organic food, vitamins, sleep, moments for quiet reflection and private jokes) to put his best Windsor foot forward. A score of aides and diplomats helped the King hone his splendid speech to Congress, but only one person gave him the emotional security to deliver it like a properly contented, balanced human being.

‘There’s a price to be paid for travelling that distinct step behind your spouse’: President Trump, King Charles and Queen Camilla walk through the White House Credit

But there’s a price to be paid for travelling that distinct step behind your spouse. The very least of it is becoming discussed as a clothes horse, rather than a witty, well-read woman. Suddenly, the only thing that matters is which designer you’re wearing and the subtle messages semaphored by your brooch. I thought of this while watching Camilla, as she and Charles visited the September 11 Memorial site in New York. The royal couple were given a personal tour by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor, and the three walked abreast, but it was the two men who talked gravely to one another, while the Queen had to maintain that poised expression which speaks of serious reflection, mourning and utmost dignity. It was only after the laying of commemorative flowers, when Bloomberg handed the duo to another female dignitary that Camilla was properly brought into the conversation.

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You may think I’m making a trivial point, but it’s impossible to think of the previous royal consort, Prince Philip, being reduced to a silent auxiliary. He had opinions and jokes and wanted the world to hear them. And you can’t imagine that studied mask of deep, reverent reflection being Camilla’s natural mode on any non-state occasion. I watched half a dozen videos of Camilla performing her stately, loyal, wifely role as if born into the Windsor charabanc and thought she deserved a loud burst of, “Well played, your Majesty!”

Thank God our famously book-loving Queen got a couple of moments devoted to her own private passions and attempts to address the world’s ills. There was the moment at the British Embassy’s garden party when she was photographed talking animatedly to Michelle DeLaune, CEO of the US’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Then a glimpse of a happy Camilla leaving a reception at the New York Public Library with a beaming Sarah Jessica Parker, after the Queen read an extract from Winnie-the-Pooh to schoolchildren. I am doubtless biased, as someone with a degree in English Literature, but I can’t help thinking that a love of novels generally indicates a person with enhanced understanding of human nature and a good sense of humour.

A glimpse of a happy Camilla leaving a reception at the New York Public Library  Credit: ADAM GRAY / AFP via Getty Images

Added to all this, whenever I saw Camilla standing or sitting next to Melania, whose marble-smooth, Sphynx-like beauty speaks of the aesthetic practitioner’s skilled hand, I was proud that our 78-year-old Queen looked stylish, glowing but lined. Especially in that cerise gown for the state banquet, adorned by that huge diamond-and-amethyst necklace. Every wrinkle speaks of a joy-filled past, filled with ciggies, sex and champagne. Those of us who regard ourselves as the King’s loyal subjects, Cavaliers not Roundheads, would not have it any other way.