Queen Consort Camilla's route to the heart of the Royal Family has not always been straightforward. From being described by Diana, Princess of Wales, as the “third person” in her marriage to then Prince Charles, to being accused of leaking royal stories to the media in Prince Harry's memoir Spare, Camilla's public image has taken several hits over the years.
However, when King Charles III is crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey, the 75-year-old Camilla is set to be given equal billing. The grandmother of five’s own family will play a part in proceedings, with the Royal Family showing a sense of modernisation to the public.
Almost one in five British families were considered blended by the Office for National Statistics in 2019, and as that figure continues to increase Britain's best-known family will be presenting a relatable front. While relationships within the Royal Family have become a long-running saga within the media, with Harry and Meghan Markle's explosive recent revelations continuing to put a strain on Buckingham Palace, it appears the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's approach has had the unforeseen side effect of giving the royals “realness”.
While some reputations were damaged by Spare's contents, The Telegraph reports that one unintended consequence of Harry’s memoir has been to make his nearest and dearest appear, as the late Queen once put it, as “like all the best families” with its “share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters, and of disagreements”. Charles and Camilla will present their version of a modern family when Tom Parker Bowles’s children Lola, 15, and Freddy, 13, are included in the coronation alongside Camilla’s daughter Laura Lopes’ children Eliza, 15, and twins, Louis and Gus, 13.
There have been suggestions that they may be asked to carry the coronation “canopy” under which their grandmother will be anointed. As Buckingham Palace has stressed from the very beginning, the coronation “will reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future, while being rooted in long standing traditions and pageantry”.
