Only she can defuse his explosive tempers
AFTeR the divorce of Charles and Diana, Camilla was introduced to a few members of the Prince’s staff, who were warned not to let anyone know that they’d met her. One of these was Sandy Henney, then number two in Charles’s press office. She liked Camilla hugely — and felt grateful to her for smoothing things when Charles, as happened now and then, lost his temper.
She vividly recalls an occasion when the royal helicopter touched down at Powis Castle in Wales, at the end of a very long day. Knowing Charles’s schedule, she was sure he’d be exhausted and desperately in need of a restorative Martini.
What she didn’t know was that a foreign dignitary had died, and Charles was about to be told that rather than rest, he had to travel thousands of miles to a funeral.
Camilla, who knew what was coming, beckoned Sandy over. ‘There’s going to be an almighty explosion,’ she said conspiratorially. ‘I thought you might like to hide around the corner with me.’
Sandy takes up the story. ‘ All hell broke loose, and I just said to her: “Thank you!” She got me out of the way of the explosion, and I loved her to bits for that.’
Generally though, Camilla can be relied upon to jolly Charles out of a bad temper.
In 1996, as they were preparing to go to a golf tournament in Berkshire to collect a cheque for £250,000 for the Prince’s Trust, he was complaining about the journey.
‘Yes, I do agree,’ said Camilla sarcastically. ‘ Sunningdale is a very long way from Highgrove’ — in fact it’s 83 miles, a quick hop down the M4 — ‘but you’re only going to be there for 14 minutes. Let’s divide 14 into a quarter of a million. It’s probably a higher rate than the Spice Girls earn.’ And as usual he giggled and his temper was restored.
Camilla’s sense of humour is much appreciated by her staff. When Amanda MacManus was recruited as an assistant to Camilla, one of the first things she did was to delete the guest list for Charles’s 50th birthday party. Accidentally — and permanently.
She’d never worked in an office and had no formal qualifications. The document that befuddled Amanda was a detailed spreadsheet with the names of those invited, when they’d replied, their drivers’ details and where they were staying.
‘When I got the job, no one had asked me if I’d ever worked on a computer before,’ she says gaily, ‘and I hadn’t. I got this list up in front of me, and it said: “Do you want to save?” and I thought no, so I pressed “Don’t save” and pages just flew off the screen.
‘At some stage, this guy came along to see me and I said: “I think I’ve lost the guest list — do you think you could help me?”
‘And that was the only guest list. He said: “I don’t know what you’ve done, but you’ve done it very effectively — you’ve wiped the entire thing.” God was on my side and I found one hard copy, but there was general hysteria. And then the duchess rang and said: “I hear you’ve wiped my guest list.”
‘I said: “Yes, I have, and I think I’m going to take a one-way ticket to Argentina.”
‘She said: “I don’t think you need to do that.” ’
Amanda, who has since become a valued and trusted aide, says nothing really fazes Camilla, and she always sees the funny side.
One night, they drove to London to an art exhibition, where Camilla was a VIP guest. As they walked in, Amanda grew uneasy when she realised people were looking and saying to one another in surprise: ‘That’s Mrs Parker Bowles!’
Then it dawned on her that they were looking at oil paintings, whereas the invitation was to an exhibition of watercolours. ‘I said: “We’re in the wrong exhibition.”
‘ “What do you mean, we’re in the wrong exhibition?” “I’ve brought you to the wrong exhibition.” ‘ “So what are we going to do?” ‘ “We’re just going to put our drinks down and potter off to the right one.” So we went round the corner into the next gallery, where [Camilla’s] sister and family were, and, of course, it was hysterical. “You’ll never guess what Mandy’s just done — taken me to the wrong exhibition!”
‘I didn’t live that down for a long while.’
Nor is her loyalty restricted only to those she knows well. She has good reason to feel wary of the media. But one photographer has been touched by her kindness.
In 2008, Ian Jones, the Telegraph’s royal photographer, lost the job he’d been doing for 18 years, and was given just one month’s pay.
Two months later, while covering a royal tour of the Caribbean, he was invited — along with six or seven others in the Press corps — for a drink on the super-yacht Charles and Camilla were using.
‘She came out in a beautiful twopiece silk suit, with bare feet and a drink,’ says Ian. ‘She came round to me and she said: “Ian, I’ve heard about the Telegraph. I think it’s terrible what they’ve done to you. Are you looking for other things?”
‘I said: “Well, Ma’am, I’m doing portraiture and I’ll do weddings, and I’ll carry on photographing the Royal Family because I have done this for 20 years and I’m not going to stop just because of this.”
‘She said: “That’s wonderful — I really do wish you well. I was really thinking about you when someone told me about it. And you’re doing portraits? Would you mind if I gave your number to my friends?” ’
Since then, Ian has had many commissions on the back of that conversation. Camilla uses him to do a lot of the ‘host’ photography at Clarence House — pictures of the couple and their guests.
‘That’s the woman she is,’ he says. ‘Very, very loyal.’
AdApted from the duchess: the Untold Story by penny Junor, published by William Collins at £20. © penny Junor 2017. to order a copy for £15 (offer valid until July 3, p&p free), call 0844 571 0640 or visit mailbookshop.co.uk.