Camilla's first tense meeting with late Queen after being branded 'wicked woman' (2025)

King Charles and Queen Camilla faced an uphill battle to get the seal of approval for their relationship - and one person who they were desperate to win over was the late Queen Elizabeth II, Charles' mother

After Charles and Camilla tentatively made their relationship official in 1999, the then-Mrs Parker Bowles still faced an uphill battle if she had any hope of winning over the general public. For Camilla to be truly accepted, an official engagement with Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was desperately needed.

Camilla Parker Bowles and Prince Charles had already played a painfully long waiting game, delaying appearing in public together for almost two years after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The couple’s next significant milestone came the following year, in 2000, when the late Queen attended a 60th birthday party for King Constantine of Greece at Highgrove, Charles’s Gloucestershire country home.

Camilla, of course, was also present and the two women were officially introduced. Slowly but surely, progress was being made. While much work was being done behind closed doors to smooth the path for Camilla, she had some way to go before shaking off her status as one of the most hated women in Britain – as many still blamed her for the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage.

"It was incredibly difficult,"says royal author Katie Nicholl. "Camilla went through a lot. Meghan [Markle] complained about the press turning against her and of having a difficult time, but I don’t think anyone has had it as hard as Camilla." While never prone to self-pity, Camilla would probably agree.

Speaking in 2017 about how the public turned against her once news of her and Charles’s affair broke, she said, "I couldn’t really go anywhere… it was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it." But as the years passed, the tide turned and, by the time she and Charles tied the knot in April 2005, even Princes William and Harry appeared to have warmed to their new stepmother.

Despite claiming in his 2023 memoir, Spare, that he and William had begged Charles not to marry Camilla, fearing she might become their “wicked stepmother”, on the eve of his 21st birthday Harry conceded that it had been "very hard" for Camilla to become accepted into the royal fold, and even acknowledged the positive impact she'd had on his father.

"We are very grateful for her," he said. "She’s made our father very happy." Clearly opinion was starting to change and, once Camilla became the Duchess of Cornwall, she was able to prove her worth as a senior working royal, finally letting the public see what she was made of.

"She needed to carve the role of Duchess of Cornwall for herself and she did so quite diligently, very quietly, in her own dignified and unassuming way," says Katie. “I think the Queen appreciated that – she saw how much Camilla did and how hard she worked.

"And I think the Queen also realised what she brought to Charles. Camilla actually made Charles a happier person and she recognised that, having had the most loyal of consorts in Prince Philip. She knew that, to be a successful King, Charles also needed support – and he had it in spade-loads with Camilla."

It wasn’t just the late Queen who noticed Camilla’s positive effect on Charles. According to onlookers at their 2005 wedding, there wasn’t a hint that his sons, Princes William and Harry, were anything but delighted that their father was marrying his long-term love.

"Maybe William and Harry, as more mature adults, were just happy to see their father more content than he had been in years," says royal historian Hugo Vickers. "Because he certainly wasn’t content before – he was haunted by the other marriage. So why shouldn’t he have that comfort?"

Like Katie, Hugo agrees that the very act of formalising their union was transformative for the couple – and for Camilla in particular. "When they married, Camilla transformed from being [seen as] the hated mistress into the supportive wife," he says. "Almost overnight. From the moment she became HRH, the Duchess of Cornwall, the press sort of went, 'Whoops, we’d better take her seriously and respect her.' And then, of course, the press got to meet her – and she’s very good with them, because she’s very easygoing."

Hugo adds, "I’ve met her a few times and she’s very nice, very easy to talk to. I think people are genuinely very respectful of her and admiring of her." According to Katie, Camilla "made the press an ally", not with an elaborate public relations offensive, but by being "a thoroughly decent, likeable person".

“She’s easy to work with and generous with her time,” she says. “I think that’s stood her in really good stead. And I also think the charities she’s chosen to align herself with – victims of domestic violence, empowering women – are things that resonate with people. I think she’s got a real sense of the ordinary about her and I think that’s made her incredibly popular.”

This sudden turnaround in her fortunes proves, says Katie, just how far Camilla has come since the Queen famously referred to her as “that wicked woman”. “That was a long time ago,” she says. “We saw how [Queen Elizabeth] evolved and transitioned during her reign, and she did that with Camilla, too. She came not only to accept her, but to love her very deeply.”

In the years that followed, the Queen did much to publicly boost Camilla, making her Privy Councillor in 2016 and a Royal Lady of the Order of the Garter in June 2022 – endorsements that were very much appreciated by the then-Prince Charles. But the ultimate seal of approval came on the eve of her Diamond Jubilee in 2022, when she said it was her “sincere wish” that Camilla be known as Queen Consort once Charles became King.

“You couldn’t get a greater endorsement of the Queen’s admiration for this woman,” says Katie. “Yes, it took a long time to get there, but when she had the Queen’s support, it was fully and wholeheartedly there, with her making it known that she wanted this woman to be Queen after her.”

By the time King Charles and Queen Camilla were finally crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023, just over 18 years since they married, few could have begrudged Camilla her hard-earned title. And no one will have been happier, or more relieved, than King Charles.