How Duchess Camilla has already proved she’s set to be a very different Queen to Queen Elizabeth

Duchess Camilla could be seen to have already proved she’s on course to be a very different Queen to her mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth. 

• The Duchess of Cornwall has recently made her British Vogue debut and over the years has often shared intriguing insights with the media. 
• This is a huge contrast from Her Majesty who is believed to have never granted a general media interview during her reign. 
• This royal news as Kate Middleton admitted she 'absolutely' feels guilty when her children make this heartbreaking request. 

Earlier this year the Queen made the exciting announcement that it was her “sincere wish” that her daughter-in-law the Duchess of Cornwall would be known as Queen Consort when Prince Charles becomes King. Reports have since claimed that Duchess Camilla’s new title was a “done deal” for quite some time before this. Whilst Duchess Camilla addressed the Queen Consort news soon after, describing it as a “great honor”. 

As a Queen Consort versus a Queen Regnant, or ruling Queen, like Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess’ future position will naturally be very different from her mother-in-law. However, Duchess Camilla has also proven she’s already forging her own distinct path as a future Queen of any description. 

She’s shown she’s happy to open up to the media and has recently shared even more personal details about life as part of the extended Royal Family.

Ahead of her 75th birthday on July 17th, Duchess Camilla made her British Vogue debut and went on to share a variety of intriguing insights. This ranged from a remark about her unpierced ears which suggests Duchess Camilla will miss out on some of the Queen’s precious jewelry pieces, to discussing how it’s sometimes “it’s not easy” to make time for her and Prince Charles amid their hectic royal schedules. 

And this isn’t the first time the Duchess of Cornwall has got candid with the media! Back in 2017 when she was preparing to turn 70, she opened up to the Daily Mail (opens in new tab) about her late father Major Bruce Shand and how she was “brought up with the grounding” of her parents. 

She was even interviewed by her restaurant critic son Tom Parker Bowles for You (opens in new tab) Magazine in May 2022. Here she revealed in a very down-to-earth admission that she “never followed a recipe in [her] life”. Now Duchess Camilla has been captured by the Duchess of Cambridge in a stunning summery cover photo as she becomes the third Royal Guest editor of Country Life magazine. 

All of her interviews and engagement with the media could be seen to have displayed a willingness to show a more personal side and divulge anecdotes in a way that fans have never seen from the Queen.

Famously throughout her 70 year reign, the Queen is understood to have never given press interviews. 

Her Majesty has also only occasionally appeared in royal documentaries, though she did record a voiceover for the BBC’s Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen. However, she didn’t feature in the Prince Philip documentary last year which was given unique access to the Duke of Edinburgh’s staff and to film inside Buckingham Palace. 

In contrast, Duchess Camilla appeared in a documentary about her entitled The Real Camilla in 2018 and also one focused on the Prince of Wales called Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70. 

It’s not known exactly why Her Majesty traditionally doesn’t grant media interviews whilst she often issues official messages. It could simply be that the Queen prefers to keep her public role as distinct from her private family life as she’s able to.

Whilst Royal biographer Clive Irving claimed in the past to Vanity Fair that the Queen has kept the monarchy alive by maintaining “mystique” and a “kind of unknowability”, which could perhaps be enhanced by keeping this level of privacy. 

Either way, she’s taken a different approach throughout her reign to her daughter-in-law. And although Duchess Camilla might not undertake so many media projects like interviews when she becomes Queen Consort, these insights over the years could suggest a different path going forwards.