Food critic Tom Parker Bowles, the son of Queen Camilla, has written a new book called Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III. While speaking to The Times, Parker Bowles discussed his mother's favorite foods, and addressed rumors that she's fond of both smoking and drinking.
"If anyone ever meets my mother, they always ... I mean, a son would say this, but she’s someone I love going to have dinner with," he told the outlet. "And I go for a walk with her in Scotland. You’re always going to have your rows, differences of opinion. It would be very odd if we agreed [on] everything. Creepy. I certainly would annoy her sometimes."
As for some of those persistent, negative allegations about his mom, Parker Bowles isn't afraid to dispel them immediately. "Oh, you know she has that reputation of drinking gin and smoking?" Parker Bowles asked the interviewer. "Never drunk a glass of gin in her life. Doesn’t smoke."
While some depictions of Queen Camilla have suggested she is a heavy drinker and smoker, Parker Bowles called the idea "totally inaccurate."
"But my mother hardly drinks," he explained. "Never seen her so much as tipsy."
Basically, Queen Camilla may have the odd alcoholic drink or two, but it would seem she's far from being a regular drinker.
As for how he came to write a book about the Royal Family's relationship with food, Parker Bowles said, "Everything went through my mother first, and then through the Palace."
He continued, "My aim, obviously, as a food writer, is to write good books about food. But my other aim is never to embarrass, or jeopardize, or blur that line [with] my stepfather [King Charles], whom I love and respect and adore."
