“They’re going to have to invent a jab of some sort to keep me going”: Camilla Gives Rare Interview

To mark her upcoming seventieth birthday, an exclusive interview with the Duchess of Cornwall has today been published in The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine.

Camilla, whose milestone birthday is July 17 (also the day the House of Windsor celebrates its centenary), her two children and various family and friends were present during the interview, offering insights into the Duchess’s personality and life.

“Sometimes you get up in the morning and think you can’t do it, and you just have to. The minute you stop it’s like a balloon, you run out of puff – you sort of collapse in a heap,” the Duchess said to a friend, before joking with the reporter about her age – “Am I not young? Is that what you are saying?” In reference to the 200+ engagements she does each year both at home in the UK and abroad, with a laugh, Camilla said that “they’re going to have to invent a jab of some sort to keep me going”.

Speaking of the people she encounters on her royal duties, Camilla said that her role was made easier because she “genuinely likes people and I’m so curious about them” because “other people’s lives are so much more interesting than one’s own.”

The Duchess at the christening of Princess Charlotte, July 2015

Both the Duchess and her son, Tom Parker-Bowles, spoke of the period where Camilla was set upon by the press at the height of the War of the Waleses: “We used to keep binoculars in my mother’s bathroom, and one of us would look out every morning to see how many paparazzi were hiding in the bushes. We could tell by the flash of sun on their camera lenses,” Tom said.

The Duchess for her part does not complain about the press’ behaviour, simply saying it was “a deeply unpleasant time” which she “wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through”. Her family and a number of close friends who visited her at home were her support system during this time period.

The Duchess with her children, Tom and Laura, in 2015

Camilla also spoke of her close bond with her late brother, Mark Shand, who died in 2014: “Mark always wanted something. When I heard his voice on the phone saying, ‘Camillsy…’ I knew immediately he wanted something. But God, I miss him.” The Duchess has always been close to her two siblings, she and sister Annabel Elliott speak every day.

Her nephew, Ben Elliott, describes her as “witty”, a person who “doesn’t suffer fools gladly”. Like many who have encountered the Duchess in the twelve years since she married the Prince of Wales, a courtier boasts of “her warmth”.

Read the full interview article here.

Filed under The United Kingdom
Tagged Birthday, Interview, The Duchess of Cornwall.

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