What this charming picture says about Charles and Camilla
WHEN it comes to royal portraits, nothing should be taken for granted.
From the setting of the scene, to the jewellery and the poses, very little is ever left to chance.
So what does the charming image of Their Majesties released yesterday by Buckingham Palace to mark the anniversary of the Coronation next week tell us?
Taken by portrait photographer Millie Pilkington (a favourite of the Prince and Princess of Wales) this month in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, it radiates a sense of calm and contentment – and, dare one say it, joy.
At first glance this most personal of pictures is reminiscent of the historic diamond wedding anniversary portrait of the late Queen elizabeth and Prince Philip, the Duke of edinburgh, in 2007 at Broadlands in Hampshire, where the couple honeymooned 60 years earlier.
Charles and Camilla’s picture was taken the morning after their 19th wedding anniversary.
Both her late Majesty and Queen Camilla have their arms lightly threaded through their husband’s as they stroll among the greenery.
And both images capture the same sense of togetherness – couples who are happily comfortable in each other’s company after many decades of companionship.
But while royal portraits of old would have shown the monarch’s spouse gazing up at them, notably in this case it is the King who is looking adoringly at his wife.
Queen Camilla, wearing a pretty indigo day dress with velvet detail by one of her favourite designers, Fiona Clare, and sporting jewellery not taken from the palace vaults but given to her by Charles over the years, is the one whose eyes are captured by the lens.
‘I think it’s deeply significant that His Majesty is looking at his Queen rather than the other way around because she’s the one who has been front and centre [of the family] over the past few months,’ one friend tells me.
‘She has found herself in a role she never hungered for, but has taken on regardless because of the man she loves.’
Indeed, with her husband able to undertake few public engagements since January while having treatment, and Prince William supporting his wife Kate during her own cancer treatment, it has been Queen Camilla, 76, who has led the family from the front.
That’s not to say it has all been plain sailing. In February, I was told by well-placed sources that Her Majesty was ‘deeply worried’ about her husband – unsurprising given his diagnosis. And the King has found himself ‘under the weather’ on occasion as a result of his treatment, which has been tough for his queen to see.
‘It’s tricky for anyone whose partner is having cancer treatment. Your first and most natural instinct is to be concerned for their health and not want to go out to work,’ I am told.
But she has done, ‘with a smile on her face, in a very public way’.
Indeed, even her closest friends are still lost in admiration for her courage in opening a Maggie’s cancer care centre in London in February, just days after being told privately that The King was about to face the fight of his life.
‘How she held it together, I do not know. That takes massive strength of character,’ my source says. The late Queen memorably referred to Prince Philip as her ‘strength and stay’ in 1997 during their golden wedding anniversary, and it is clear Charles believes the same of his Camilla.
The King still has a long journey ahead, despite the latest news from the palace.
Anyone whose life has been touched by the blight of cancer knows there can be twists and turns on the road to recovery. But serious illness also brings you together and gives you a new appreciation of what matters most in life.
What we see here, first and foremost, is a man who knows that whatever lies around the corner, he will face it with the love of his life at his side – and is happy for the world to know it too.