When it comes to changing the public’s views on the Royal Family, it’s often an uphill battle. The Team Meghan vs. Team Kate debate continues on social media (albeit slightly quieter than it used to), and there’s always going to be royal watchers who have strong feelings on various members of the family. But for Queen Camilla, the slow shift in public opinion about Her Majesty might just be the most successful royal PR coup yet.
In the latest episode of ITV’s “Talking Royals” podcast, royal editor Chris Ship and presenter Charlene White discussed the roles of the various wives of Windsor, and Ship noted that The Queen “has gone from being the most hated woman in Britain” to one of the most respected members of the Royal Family.
After carrying on a longtime affair with King Charles (then Prince Charles), Camilla’s reputation couldn’t have been worse in the 1990s and early 2000s. Ship recalled Queen Camilla being regularly “driven out of her home in the back of a car hiding under a blanket” to escape the paparazzi, a time her son Tom Parker Bowles recently called “incredibly dangerous” in an interview with Hello! magazine.
Through decades of dedicated charity work—specifically raising awareness for domestic violence causes and literacy—and her quiet support for The King, Ship says Camilla has become “the linchpin holding the entire institution together.”
The Queen is often named as one of the favorite members of the Royal Family for many journalists and palace staffers, and when discussing her rise, White said, “I would say that it’s one of the greatest PR campaigns we’ve seen in recent history, because that turnaround in terms of how the public feel about her has been remarkable.”
Royal author Simon Vigar agreed that there’s been “a softening” in how people view Queen Camilla, even though the public “used to blame her for the whole mess” with Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s divorce.
“Time’s a great healer,” he added. Although Ship pointed out The Queen knows “she’s never going to be right at the very top” of the popularity polls, Vigar says that’s just fine with Camilla. “She’s completely relaxed with that,” he said.
