With Camilla now Queen and her relationship with King Charles being as steady as it is, a lot of the public has forgotten how controversial the relationship was back in the days when Princess Diana was alive. There were multiple reports that the relationship between the King and Queen began even before he married Princess Diana, and continued all through his marriage to the mother of his two children, Prince William and Prince Harry. And that fact has long contributed to rumors that Prince William and Prince Harry don’t particularly love their stepmother.
Now, according to The Daily Mail, the new book Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants by royal author Tom Quinn reveals that William and Harry had nicknames for Camilla when they were younger, and those nicknames are anything but nice. According to reports, they called Queen Camilla “Lady Macbeth,” “Cruella de Vil,” and the “Witch of the West.”
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This isn’t exactly surprising if we remember that Prince Harry revealed in his book that both he and William begged their father not to marry Camilla. “We support you, we said. We endorse Camilla, we said. ‘Just please don’t marry her. Just be together, Pa.’ He didn’t answer. But she answered. Straight away. Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to play the long game, a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown (with Pa’s blessing, we presumed).”
William’s relationship with his stepmother is reportedly not any better. Royal expert Christopher Andersen told Us Weekly last year that the heir to the throne “tolerates” Camilla, and that she’s always been “a little afraid” of him. Another source reportedly said, “William and 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. William and Harry’s distrust grew when they found out Camilla was leaking stories to the press to make herself look better.”
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This comes after recent reports that Queen Camilla isn’t forgetting what has been said about her, particularly on the part of Prince Harry. “He has been extremely unkind to her in print and in word, and she doesn’t forgive easily,” a palace insider told the Times of London. “The royal family make elephants look like they have short memories,” the insider added.
In fact, there’s even been the suggestion that the issues between King Charles and Prince Harry were partly because of what he said about Queen Camilla in public. “When Harry branded his stepmother Camilla a ‘villain’ in his book and revealed that both he and William initially begged their father not to marry her, Harry committed what Charles regards as a cardinal sin,” Andersen told Fox News Digital last year.
“When the docuseries [Harry & Meghan] came out, Camilla was furious,” a source told Us Weekly. “Then, when Spare [was released], Camilla was saddened by what was said about her. She was heartbroken and confused.”
Things for King Charles and Prince Harry are getting better, and that has sparked hope about the possibility that Prince Harry and Prince William can reconcile. But as for Queen Camilla, that relationship with her stepsons will probably only be cordial, at best.
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