Queen Camilla is lending her voice to a topic that, just a few decades ago, would have been considered taboo for a member of the Royal Family to touch. But in her new documentary, Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors, the royal is sharing some sober statistics she's learned while campaigning against domestic violence.
The ITV documentary, which aired on Nov. 11, follows Camilla in her first year as Queen while she carries out her work with domestic abuse charities like SafeLives, of which she serves as patron.
In the emotional program, The Queen spoke with Diana Parkes, a woman whose daughter, Joanna Simpson, was killed by her estranged husband in a 2010 murder that shocked the U.K.
"My reaction, I'm afraid, was to cry," Queen Camilla said when speaking of her first meeting with Parkes in 2016. "I looked around and there was a lot of police and hard-nosed journalists sitting around—there wasn't a dry eye in the place."
During the documentary, startling facts about domestic abuse in the U.K. are revealed, and The Queen admitted that just "by scratching the surface, you get a terrible shock."
However, the royal continued that it was important to see "more people discussing it, talking about it."
Royal correspondents Chris Ship and Sarah Hewson spoke about the documentary in the Sun's Royal Exclusive show, with Hewson noting that the audience at a Buckingham Palace screening was so shocked by what they saw that you could "hear a pin drop."
Speaking about the first time Queen Camilla met Parkes, Ship said The Queen "heard the whole story" about Simpson's brutal death, adding Her Majesty "was openly crying in that room."
Ship continued that their meeting was a bit of a lightbulb moment when it came to Camilla focusing on domestic violence work, telling the Sun, "you can see how she was just so moved by that, I think that was the moment she thought: 'I’ve got this platform and I’m going to do something about it.'"
While media coverage of The King and Queen's trips to Australia and Samoa was mainly focused on their public meet-and-greets and the republican sentiments that preceded the trip, Ship pointed out that Camilla quietly carried out engagements with domestic violence charities, too.
"It doesn’t always get a lot of coverage but in Australia and in Samoa recently, she went to the charities that help women trying to flee abusive relationships," the reporter said.
"It's not just a professional connection of ‘I’m the Queen, I’m the patron of this charity,’ she has a real personal connection with the women and the survivors and you can see that," Ship added.
If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship abuse in any form, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline for free, confidential support 24/7/365. Text START to 88788, call 1-800-799-SAFE(7233) or chat online at TheHotline.org.
