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Days before his memoir Spare was released, Prince Harry went on a promotional tour for his book and some of the comments he made about his stepmother Camilla, Queen Consort (formerly Camilla Parker Bowles) during interviews have raised some eyebrows.
While the Duke of Sussex countered that what’s in his book is “scathing” toward Camilla or anyone in his family, many royal watchers disagree. And now one author is slamming Harry for saying that his stepmom was “campaigning” to be queen, when the evidence has pointed to Camilla being content if she had remained Charles’ girlfriend.
What Prince Harry said about his stepmom’s ‘campaign’ to be queen
In Prince Harry’s interview with ITV journalist Tom Bradby, the duke discussed Camilla’s relationship with King Charles and what’s included in his book ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer.
In one passage Harry says that while he and William “supported” their father’s relationship with Camilla and “endorsed” her, they did not want their dad to marry her and asked him not to.
Harry claims that Charles “didn’t answer. But [Camilla] answered. Straight away. Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to play the long game. A campaign aimed marriage, and eventually the Crown, with Pa’s blessing we presumed.”
Author insists Camilla would have been ‘perfectly happy’ to have remained Charles’ girlfriend
Journalist and author, A.N. Wilson found Harry’s memoir to be nothing more than a “revenge book” against his stepmother.
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“It is [Princess Diana’s revenge] because the villain of the book is the present queen, Camilla,” Wilson told Times Radio.
He continued: “[Harry] can’t conceal his loathing of Camilla and he puts in lots of things that I’m 95% certain are untrue, namely that Camilla was always campaigning to become the Queen of England. All the anecdotal evidence was that she was perfectly happy to remain Charles’ girlfriend and it was he who insisted that she marry him.”
Biographer says Camilla almost skipped out on wedding to Charles and ‘dreads’ being crowned
Some of that “evidence” Wilson is referring to is what royal experts, as well as Camilla’s friends and family, have said for years about her having preferred to stay in the background away from the royal spotlight, and how her nerves about marrying the future king were an issue the day they wed.
Penny Junor, who wrote a biography about Camilla before she became queen consort titled The Duchess: Camilla Parker Bowles and the Love Affair That Rocked the Crown, said that Charles’s bride didn’t want to get out of bed the day of their wedding. The author revealed that Camilla almost didn’t make the big day because she was sick with sinusitis. But there was also another reason.
“On the day itself it took four people to coax Camilla out of bed,” Junor explained (per Vanity Fair). “It wasn’t just her sinus infection that was at play, though. It had become more an issue of nerves.” The biographer added that it wasn’t until Camilla’s sister, Annabel, threatened to put on Camilla’s gown and go to the wedding in her place that her sibling finally got up and got dressed.
As for the official crowning of queen consort that awaits her during Charles’ coronation in May, Junor wrote: “Friends and family know it is not something she wants — she has said as much. [Camilla] is in this position because of her love of the man, not because of her desire to be anything more than a support to him. The whole business of his accession is something she dreads and, in her inimitable way, is choosing not to think about.”
