Nephew’s hint that Camilla will become Queen
SPECULATION has raged for years over whether the Duchess of Cornwall will become Queen when Prince Charles takes the throne.
Now her nephew appears to have dropped another hint that Camilla may well get the title.
Ben Elliot remarked in a new documentary: ‘ As we’ve seen with our current Queen, she’s been a great queen because she’s been assisted absolutely brilliantly by her husband the Duke of Edinburgh.
‘And when the Prince of Wales eventually becomes our king, with my aunt next to him, he will be a great king.’
Since Camilla’s marriage to Prince Charles, Clarence House has maintained it is ‘intended’ she will be known as ‘ Princess Consort’, although it is well known the heir to the throne would like to see his wife crowned queen.
Aides have quietly tested the waters over the years to see if public opinion would back the move and businessman Mr Elliot, son of Camilla’s sister Annabel, would not have been speaking without the express permission of Clarence House, which has co- operated with the ITV programme.
Documentary- makers Spun Gold spent more than a year following the duchess both on official duties and in her spare time.
It shows her at Dumfries House, a Scottish mansion Charles saved for the nation which houses many of his charitable organisations – and where Camilla swears she felt the presence of a ghost.
She said: ‘If you could have seen it when the prince first spotted it, you wouldn’t have believed it was the same house.
‘It was so sad and unlived in, unloved and neglected. And it had a really eerie feel about it. There was definitely a ghost. Without a shadow of a doubt. I remember the first time I walked up the steps, got into the hall and I thought, “I can’t go any further.” I literally froze.
‘If my hair could stand on end, it would have done. I remember leaving and thinking I don’t want to come back here again and I didn’t for a few years.’
The Real Camilla, which is on ITV at 9pm tonight, also shows a Christmas party for terminally ill children from Helen and Douglas House hospice in Oxford.
Camilla, 70, said: ‘I think we came up with the idea of having the Christmas tree here and it’s become an annual event. A lot of these children are dreadfully ill.
‘You sometimes wonder, the next year, are they going to be here?
‘I usually go and have a good cry. It just makes you realise how lucky you are. When you see these brave parents who have very tough lives looking after these children and they don’t complain about it. They just get on with life.’
She also speaks of her excitement at the year ahead – including the birth of William and Kate’s third child and Harry’s wedding.
The duchess said: ‘Very busy year ahead. We’ve got babies, we’ve got weddings, we’ve got a bit of everything.
‘Then of course we’ve got my husband joining me in the 70s, which I’m very glad he’s at last able to have caught up with me. So that will be the end of the year but it’s going to be full of excitements.’