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Lifestyle
Emma Shacklock

Queen Camilla’s way of keeping fit sounds so elegant and she’s even got her friends on board!

Queen Camilla's way of keeping fit revealed. Seen here is Queen Camilla during her visit to Sandringham Flower Show

Queen Camilla’s way of keeping fit sounds so elegant and she persuaded her friends to get on board despite them “howling with laughter” at first. 


From Princess Catherine’s fitness ritual that she incorporates into her morning routine, to the exercise that King Charles does, members of the Royal Family have found the best ways to keep active alongside their many responsibilities. This includes Queen Camilla, whose schedule is packed with important engagements, royal occasions and travelling. 

And Queen Camilla’s way of keeping fit is something that her friends have got on board with too, although they initially thought she was “joking”. As revealed by the Royal Family website, Queen Camilla keeps fit by taking Silver Swan ballet classes - and she’s given fascinating details about them. 

(Image credit: Photo by Eddie Mulholland - Pool\Getty Images)

In July 2020 she guest edited the Emma Barnett Show on BBC Radio 5 Live during a broadcast from Clarence House and opened up about her ballet journey. Her Majesty explained, as per Hello!, that she’s been inspired to take up Silver Swan classes after learning more about them during a visit to the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) in 2018. 

Although she revealed that she’d paused her classes for a little while because she “did something” to her back, she said she couldn’t wait “to get back to it again” and she feels “so well afterwards”. Reflecting upon how she’d persuaded her friends to get involved, Queen Camilla disclosed that they had “howled with laughter” initially but they focused quickly. 

(Image credit: Photo by Eddie Mulholland - Pool\Getty Images)

"I gathered together a group of likely candidates in the form of friends, same age as me, and I said 'look, you know, we're going to be Silver Swans', they all howled with laughter and said 'you must be joking',” she said. “So I said 'come on let's give it a go', so we all arrived in our black leggings and T-shirts ready for the dance. We did think we'd be getting complete hysterics but we all had to concentrate, we concentrated so hard you don't dare look to the left or right."

Meanwhile, in another, earlier interview that year with Silver Swans Ambassador Angela Rippon and President of RAD, Dame Darcey Bussell, Queen Camilla shared that she’d been doing lessons for 18 months at that point. As revealed by The Guardian, she said that the group of four of them “clatter around and when [they] are in London, [they] do it once a week”, adding that it “makes all the difference”.

(Image credit: Photo by Paul Grover-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

“You might groan a bit afterwards, huff, grunt and everything else. But you do feel so much better. It’s fun,” she declared.

Silver Swan ballet classes are run by RAD and launched online classes during the pandemic. Queen Camilla’s way of keeping fit sounds super elegant and a fun experience for her and her friends and it ties in with her wider love of ballet. Her Majesty has been Patron of Elmhurst Ballet School since 2006 and last year she presented Mikhail Baryshnikov with The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award  - RAD’s highest honour - for his contribution to ballet and the dance world.

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