IT HAS NOT BEEN EASY
Amy Sharpe
THE Duchess of Cornwall has opened up about the years of public sniping she endured – and confessed: “Nobody likes to be looked at all the time.”
No one likes to be criticised but I rise above it and
get on with it
Camilla has won over opinion after being vilified for decades over her relationship with Prince Charles but admitted it was not easy.
Many were unhappy when she married into the royal family 17 years ago, claiming she was the cause of Charles and Diana’s bombshell divorce.
The Princess of Wales claimed in her infamous BBC Panorama interview in 1995 there were three people in her marriage, which made it “a bit crowded”.
Now in an interview with British Vogue magazine, Camilla says: “I was scrutinised for such a long time that you just have to find a way to live with it.
“Nobody likes to be looked at all the time and, you know, criticised and… But I think in the end, I sort of rise above it and get on with it. You’ve got to get on with life.”
Camilla and Charles dated in the 1970s but it was only a brief love affair that ended when he toured the Caribbean with the Royal Navy and returned to find her engaged to Andrew Parker Bowles.
In 1994, Charles admitted he had committed
adultery with Camilla.
Tragic
He and Diana filed for divorce in 1996, a year before her tragic death in a car crash. The future King married Camilla in 2005.
In February, the Queen said it is her sincere wish that her daughter-in-law is known as Queen Consort when Charles becomes King. But Camilla admits she and Charles – both on duty at the Royal Cornwall show last week – struggle to make time for their marriage.
She told the magazine: “Sometimes it’s like ships passing in the night, but we always sit down together and have a cup of tea and discuss the day. We have a moment.”
Camilla added they read books in different corners of the same room when they go away.
She said: “It’s very relaxing because you know you don’t have to make conversation. You just sit and be together.”
The duchess, who has five grandchildren from her two children, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles, also reflected on her 75th birthday next month.
She said: “I suppose what I’d think is, ‘I’m quite lucky that I’m still around’.”
July’s issue of British Vogue is available via digital download and newsagents from Tuesday.