Prince William and Queen Camilla appear to be in the midst of personal tensions. Speculation intensified when the Prince and Princess of Wales met with the King and Queen. Catherine, Princess of Wales curtsied to her mother-in-law. However, William forwent such formalities, greeting his stepmother with two light kisses on the cheek.
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Tensions have flared between the queen and the heir apparent to the British throne in the past. Prince William has taken on a larger role in managing royal affairs, especially after Charles III began dealing with cancer. Ian Pelham Turner, a royal expert, spoke to the Mirror about the situation within the family. He said, “I get the feeling at the moment that she’s seeing William trying to create issues, and she’s told Charles to stop it.”
Queen Camilla’s affair with King Charles was widely discussed when it became public. Diana, Princess of Wales, the biological mother of Charles’ children, never got along with the future queen, whom Charles married in 2005. By Princess Diana’s own account, Camilla had adverse effects on her mental health.
An insider reported in 2024 that the princes never really opened up to their stepmother out of loyalty to Princess Diana. They said, “William and [Prince] Harry had always distrusted Camilla and felt resentment toward her because of their devotion to their mother. They never felt comfortable opening up to her in any real way.”
Prince Harry spoke extensively about the relationship the brothers shared with Camilla in his book, Spare. He wrote that the princes tried to convince King Charles not to marry Queen Camilla. Author Angela Levin wrote in her book, Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort, that William does not view the queen as a step-grandmother to his children. She is simply his father’s wife, nothing else.
The princes, according to royal author Tom Quinn, resorted to calling Camilla names as teenagers. In his book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, he wrote that some of the names they used included Lady Macbeth, Cruella de Vil, and the Wicked Witch of the West.
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The relationship between Prince Harry, Prince William, and Queen Camilla has obviously been strained, given the history that the current monarch had with the Princes’ late mother, Princess Diana. They have been courteous, but it is clear that it takes a lot for them to see eye to eye over personal matters and matters of the Throne.
