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.
56 Facts About Queen Camilla
2.
Charles and Queen Camilla's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 6 May 2023.
3.
Queen Camilla carries out public engagements representing the monarchy, often alongside her husband.
4.
Queen Camilla is the patron, the president, or a member, of numerous charities and organisations.
5.
Since 1994, Queen Camilla has campaigned to raise awareness of osteoporosis, which has earned her several honours and awards.
6.
Queen Camilla Rosemary Shand was born at King's College Hospital, London, on 17 July 1947.
7.
Queen Camilla's parents were British Army officer-turned-businessman Major Bruce Shand and his wife The Hon.
8.
Queen Camilla has a younger sister, Annabel Elliot, and had a younger brother, Mark Shand.
9.
Queen Camilla's mother was a charity worker who during the 1960s and 1970s volunteered at the Chailey Heritage Foundation near their Sussex home.
10.
Queen Camilla's father had various business interests after retiring from the army.
11.
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.
12.
Queen Camilla is often described as having had an "Enid Blyton sort of childhood".
13.
Queen Camilla later moved into a larger flat in Belgravia, which she shared with her landlady Lady Moyra Campbell, the daughter of the Duke of Abercorn, and later with Virginia Carington, daughter of the politician Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington.
14.
Queen Camilla was reportedly fired from the job after "she came in late, having been to a dance".
15.
Queen Camilla continued to ride, and frequently attended equestrian activities.
16.
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".
17.
Queen Camilla will continue to be a friend for a very long time.
18.
Queen Camilla sat in the royal box behind the Queen for one of the concerts at Buckingham Palace.
19.
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.
20.
On 9 April 2012, the seventh wedding anniversary of the Duchess and the Prince of Wales, the Queen Camilla appointed the Duchess to the Royal Victorian Order.
21.
On 9 June 2016, the Queen Camilla appointed the Duchess as a member of the British Privy Council.
22.
On 14 February 2022, Queen Camilla tested positive for COVID-19, four days after her husband had contracted it, and began self-isolating.
23.
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.
24.
Queen Camilla was unable to carry out her engagements on their tour of Eastern Europe after developing a trapped nerve in her back.
25.
In November 2011, Queen Camilla travelled with Charles to tour the Commonwealth and Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
26.
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 UK.
27.
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.
28.
On 29 March 2023, Queen Camilla accompanied Charles for a state visit to Germany, which was his first foreign visit as monarch.
29.
Queen Camilla was crowned alongside her husband on 6 May 2023, at Westminster Abbey, in London.
30.
The Queen Camilla is the patron or president of over 100 charities and organisations.
31.
Queen Camilla is the honorary Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Navy Medical Service.
32.
Queen Camilla is an honorary member of other patronages and in February 2012, she was elected a bencher of Gray's Inn.
33.
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.
34.
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.
35.
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.
36.
In 1994, Queen Camilla became a member of the National Osteoporosis Society after her mother died painfully from the disease that year.
37.
Queen Camilla became patron of the charity in 1997 and was appointed president in 2001 in a highly publicised event, accompanied by the Prince of Wales.
38.
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.
39.
Queen Camilla continues to attend conferences around the world, and meets with health experts to further discuss the disease.
40.
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.
41.
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.
42.
Queen Camilla is the patron of the National Literacy Trust and other literacy charities.
43.
Queen Camilla has launched and continues to launch campaigns and programmes to promote literacy.
44.
Since 2015, Queen Camilla has been involved with 500 Words, a competition launched by BBC Radio 2 for children to write and share their stories and was announced as the competition's honorary judge in 2018.
45.
Since 2019 Queen Camilla has supported Gyles Brandreth's initiative Poetry Together, which aims to bring younger and older generations together through poetry recitation.
46.
In July 2022 and ahead of her 75th birthday, Queen Camilla launched her Birthday Books Project, with the aim of providing wellbeing and happiness-themed mini libraries at 75 primary schools from disadvantaged areas in the UK.
47.
In May 2023, as patron of the National Literary 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 UK in 2023 and 2024.
48.
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.
49.
In March 2022 and amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Queen Camilla made a "substantial" donation to the Daily Mails refugee campaign.
50.
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.
51.
In 2022, Queen Camilla took part in her first solo magazine shoot for British Vogue, appearing in the July 2022 issue.
52.
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.
53.
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 September 2022.
54.
The rising public acceptance of Queen Camilla allowed the 2005 announcement to be quietly shelved.
55.
Queen Camilla was initially styled as "Her Majesty The Queen Consort" to distinguish her from the recently deceased Queen Elizabeth II.
56.
Queen Camilla is descended from Dutch emigrant Arnold Joost van Keppel, who was created Earl of Albemarle by King William III in 1696.