There Was an \201cUnspoken Deal Behind the Scenes\201d Between Queen Elizabeth and Then Prince Charles Over Camilla

According to King Charles’ biographer, the late Queen Elizabeth wasn’t fond of her daughter-in-law, Queen Camilla, but agreed to a “very subtle and unspoken deal” to make her Queen Consort (and, later, Queen), The Mirror reports.

Royal expert Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of Charles III, said Her late Majesty “always detested” Camilla and only agreed to give her blessing for Camilla’s title because of an “unspoken deal behind the scenes” over none other than Prince Andrew. Camilla was disliked for “throwing a wrench in the works,” Andersen said. 

“The Queen always detested Camilla,” Andersen said on Newsweek’s “Royal Report” podcast. “The Queen Mother particularly detested Camilla because she was throwing a wrench in the works. Because of Camilla, the monarchy was kind of brought to the brink of destruction.” (Andersen is referring, of course, to the longstanding affair between Charles and the then Camilla Parker-Bowles, which began in the 1980s and carried on until after both Charles and Camilla were divorced from their respective spouses in the mid-1990s.) Though the Queen regarded Camilla with caution during the early days of knowing her, she warmed up to her towards the later years of her life.

Andersen said Buckingham Palace enacted an operation called “Operation PB” (for Parker-Bowles) to rehabilitate Camilla’s image after Charles’ first wife, Princess Diana, died in a Parisian car accident in 1997. Andersen said it took “eight years for Charles to finally convince everybody to accept Camilla as his wife,” and had to “jump through all those hoops” to do it. (Charles and Camilla ultimately married in 2005.)

On the last Accession Day of her life—February 6, 2022—the late Queen released a Platinum Jubilee message in which she told the world she wanted Camilla to become Queen Consort after her death. “When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me,” she wrote. “And it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”

There is a reason for this unexpected show of support on such an important day: Andersen believes she only agreed to Camilla’s title because of a “very subtle and unspoken deal behind the scenes that resulted in the Queen suddenly endorsing Camilla.” The deal, he said, “involved a kind of quid pro quo” and was resisted for “many, many years” before Her late Majesty finally made her decision just seven months before she passed away that September.

When Charles and Camilla married, it was understood that her title would be Princess Consort upon Charles taking the throne. The February 2022 announcement changed that, officially cementing that Camilla would be Queen Consort. Around the time of Charles’ Coronation in May—eight months after the late Queen’s death—the “Consort” was dropped, and she is now known as Queen Camilla, being crowned alongside her husband at the May 6 ceremony.