With love and cuddles from Fred and Gladys
CASUALLY dressed and hugging each other close, they look just like the happy ‘Fred and Gladys’ they like to call each other.
Taken during their summer break in Scotland, the photo shows Charles and Camilla looking hugely relaxed in the way only their closest family and friends see them.
It was snapped on a private estate by a friend and was never intended to be released publicly. But the couple loved it so much that they decided to feature it in their personal Christmas cards this year – a contrast to the more formal images traditionally favoured by members of the Royal Family.
Printed on the cover of each Christmas card are the Prince of Wales’s feathers and the Duchess’s cipher in gold, with the words ‘Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and New Year’ inside, opposite the photograph which is surrounded by a thin red border.
It has been a long and rocky road for the couple who first met and fell in love at a polo match in 1970. Even the Queen couldn’t help but refer to their difficulties in a speech she gave at their 2005 wedding, saying: ‘ They have overcome Becher’s brook and The Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles [ in an amusing reference to the Grand National].
‘They have come through and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.’
And that is exactly what this picture appears to portray – a couple naturally comfortable in each other’s company.
Clad in country dress Camilla, always the more outwardly affectionate of the two, snuggles into her husband and reaches her arm up to his shoulder. Charles, who looks relaxed despite his shirt and tie, pulls his wife in close.
A friend said yesterday: ‘It’s a lovely choice of picture and very much sums up what TRHs [Their Royal Highnesses] are like away from the public eye.’
A Clarence House spokesman said: ‘As is customary at this time of year, Clarence House is releasing for media use the image chosen by The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall for their Christmas card. The photo was taken on a private estate in August by a friend of TRH’s.’