1. In 2005, Queen Camilla married Charles in the Windsor Guildhall, which was followed by a televised Anglican blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.
63 Facts About Queen Camilla
1. 2.
Charles and Queen Camilla's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.
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Queen Camilla carries out public engagements representing the monarch and is the patron of numerous charities and organisations.
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Queen Camilla Rosemary Shand was born on 17 July 1947 at King's College Hospital, London.
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Queen Camilla's parents were British Army officer-turned-businessman Major Bruce Shand and his wife, Rosalind, daughter of Roland Cubitt, 3rd Baron Ashcombe.
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Queen Camilla has a younger sister, Annabel Elliot, and had a younger brother, Mark Shand.
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Queen Camilla grew up with dogs and cats, and, at a young age, learnt how to ride by joining Pony Club camps, going on to win rosettes at community gymkhanas.
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Queen Camilla is often described as having had an "Enid Blyton sort of childhood".
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Queen Camilla later moved into a larger flat in Belgravia, which she shared with her landlady Lady Moyra Campbell, the daughter of the 4th Duke of Abercorn, and later with Virginia Carington, daughter of the 6th Baron Carrington.
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Queen Camilla was reportedly fired from the job after "she came in late, having been to a dance".
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Queen Camilla had a passion for painting, which eventually led to her private tutoring with an artist, although most of her work "ended up in the bin".
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Queen Camilla will continue to be a friend for a very long time.
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Queen Camilla sat in the royal box behind the Queen for one of the concerts at Buckingham Palace.
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The parents of Charles and Queen Camilla did not attend; instead, Queen Camilla's son Tom and Charles's son Prince William acted as witnesses to the union.
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On 9 April 2012, Camilla and Charles's seventh wedding anniversary, the Queen appointed Camilla to the Royal Victorian Order.
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In 2015, Charles commissioned a pub to be named after Queen Camilla, situated at Poundbury village.
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On 9 June 2016, the Queen Camilla appointed the Duchess as a member of the British Privy Council.
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On 14 February 2022, Queen Camilla tested positive for COVID-19, four days after Charles had contracted it, and began self-isolating.
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Queen Camilla's first solo engagement as Duchess of Cornwall was a visit to Southampton General Hospital; she attended the Trooping the Colour for the first time in June 2005, making her appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace afterwards.
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Queen Camilla made her inaugural overseas tour in November 2005, when she visited the United States, and met George W and Laura Bush at the White House.
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Queen Camilla was unable to carry out her engagements on their tour of Eastern Europe after developing a trapped nerve in her back.
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In November 2011, Queen Camilla travelled with Charles to tour the Commonwealth and Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
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Queen Camilla attended the State Opening of Parliament for the first time in May 2013, and the same month, she travelled to Paris on her first solo trip outside the United Kingdom.
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On 13 February 2023, Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Camilla had tested positive for COVID-19, which forced her to postpone a number of public engagements.
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Queen Camilla was crowned alongside Charles on 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey, London.
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In March 2023, Queen Camilla accompanied Charles for a state visit to Germany, which was his first foreign visit as monarch.
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In September and October 2023, the King and Queen undertook state visits to France and Kenya, and in November, Camilla appeared at Charles's side at his first State Opening of Parliament as Sovereign.
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The Queen Camilla is the patron or president of more than 100 charities and organisations.
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Queen Camilla is the honorary commodore-in-chief of the Royal Navy Medical Service.
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Queen Camilla is an honorary member of other patronages and in February 2012, she was elected a bencher of Gray's Inn.
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Queen Camilla is the first female chancellor of the University of Aberdeen and the only member of the royal family to hold the post since it was created in 1860.
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In 2018 and 2020, she became the vice-patron of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Royal Academy of Dance, respectively, of which Queen Camilla Elizabeth II was a patron.
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In March 2022, as president of the Royal Voluntary Service, Queen Camilla launched the organisation's Platinum Champions Awards to honour 70 volunteers nominated by the public for their efforts in improving lives in their communities.
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In January 2024, Queen Camilla became the first royal patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK.
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In May 2024, after a major review of royal patronages and charity presidencies, Camilla took on 15 new patronages, including Army Benevolent Fund, Royal Academy of Dance, Royal Voluntary Service, Royal Literary Fund, Royal Foundation of St Katharine, and Queen's Nursing Institute.
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In 1994, Queen Camilla became a member of the National Osteoporosis Society after her mother died from the disease that year.
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Queen Camilla became patron of the charity in 1997 and was appointed president in 2001 in a highly publicised event, accompanied by Charles.
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In 2006, Queen Camilla launched the Big Bone walk campaign, leading 90 children and people with osteoporosis for a 10-mile walk and climb around Loch Muick at the Balmoral Estate in Scotland to raise money for the charity.
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Queen Camilla continues to attend conferences around the world, and meets with health experts to further discuss the disease.
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In July 2007, Queen Camilla opened the Duchess of Cornwall Centre for Osteoporosis at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro.
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Queen Camilla is patron of the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust, which provides home security for victims of crime and domestic abuse, and of SafeLives, a charity that campaigns against domestic abuse and violence.
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Queen Camilla thought of the gesture after she visited a centre in Derbyshire and asked victims what they would like to help them feel at ease after the trauma and forensic examinations.
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In May 2020, Queen Camilla supported SafeLives's 'Reach In' campaign, which encourages people to look out for people around them that might be suffering from domestic violence.
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In November 2022, Camilla hosted her first reception at Buckingham Palace after becoming queen to raise awareness of violence against women and girls during the UN's annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign.
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Queen Camilla was joined by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Queen Rania of Jordan, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska.
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Queen Camilla is the patron of the National Literacy Trust and other literacy charities.
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Queen Camilla has launched and continues to launch campaigns and programmes to promote literacy.
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The initiative, which is run by the Royal Commonwealth Society, asks young writers from across the Commonwealth to write essays on a specified theme, with Queen Camilla launching the competition annually.
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In January 2021, Queen Camilla launched the Duchess of Cornwall's Reading Room online club for readers, writers and literary communities to connect and share their interests and projects.
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In March 2025, Camilla launched the Queen's Reading Room Medal to recognise the work of people that contribute to the practice of reading among their communities.
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In October 2021, Queen Camilla was announced as patron of Silver Stories, a charity that links young people to the elderly by encouraging them to read stories over telephone.
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In May 2023, as patron of the National Literacy Trust, Queen Camilla opened the first Coronation library at Shirehampton Primary School in Bristol, and 50 Coronation libraries will be created for children in communities with low levels of literacy across the United Kingdom in 2023 and 2024.
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Queen Camilla, who had owned two Jack Russell Terriers named Rosie and Tosca, adopted two rescue puppies of the same breed named Beth and Bluebell from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in 2011 and 2012, respectively, followed by another rescue named Moley in 2025.
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Queen Camilla is the patron of Emmaus UK, and in 2013, during her solo trip to Paris, she went to see the work done by the charity in that city.
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In March 2022 and amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Queen Camilla made a "substantial" donation to the Daily Mails refugee campaign.
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Queen Camilla topped Richard Blackwell's list of "Ten Worst-Dressed Women" in 1994, and her name appeared on it again in 1995,2001 and 2006.
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Charles and Queen Camilla topped Tatlers Social Power Index for 2022 and 2023.
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In 2022, Queen Camilla took part in her first solo magazine shoot for British Vogue, appearing in the July 2022 issue.
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Legally, Queen Camilla was Princess of Wales but adopted the feminine form of her husband's highest-ranking subsidiary title, Duke of Cornwall, in a concession to the low public opinion of her.
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In 2021, upon the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Charles inherited his father's titles, and Queen Camilla thus became formally Duchess of Edinburgh until Charles's accession the following year.
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Queen Camilla was initially styled as "Her Majesty The Queen Consort" to distinguish her from the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II.
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Queen Camilla is a Royal Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Extra Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Grand Master and First and Principal Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, recipient of the Royal Family Order of Elizabeth II, recipient of the Royal Family Order of Charles III, and a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.
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Queen Camilla is descended from Dutch emigrant Arnold Joost van Keppel, who was created Earl of Albemarle by King William III in 1696.