If you haven’t fallen in love with any soap operas, the next best thing is to pay close attention to the Royal Family. The drama is always juicier, the wardrobes more luxurious, and the relationships insanely petty.
Every now and then, though, the relationships are touching rather than petty, and that has historically included the relationship between Queen Camilla and King Charles’ sister, Princess Anne. The women have always been as much friends as family, but it looks like recent changes may finally drive a wedge between the women.
What has their relationship been like before, and what is threatening to change it now? Keep reading to discover the answers!
Camilla and Anne’s current relationship
The first thing royals learn is how to maintain the stereotypical “stiff upper lip” the British are so well-known for. Therefore, we don’t know much about how Camilla and Anne feel about each other based on statements they have made about one another. Instead, most of what we know comes from analyzing body language.
For example, body language expert Judi James revealed to Express her insights about how the two women act around each other. She noted how, historically, Camilla is a bit nervous. “Camilla’s body language can define her as the most unsure and nervous royal.” As a result, Camilla (like so many of us) often looks uncertain and nervous when speaking to others, especially other royals.
The exception, though, is when she’s speaking to Princess Anne. According to James, “Anne is still the one royal that Camilla seems to greet and respond to using body language rituals that suggest some level of genuine friendship.” On top of that, Camilla “looks unusually happy, comfortable and even keen to use direct and sustained eye contact with Anne and will mirror her body language to create a sense of synchronicity and like-mindedness.”
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Not letting a man get between them
The fact that Camilla and Anne have maintained a seemingly-solid friendship across all these years is already pretty impressive. But the even more impressive feat is that these powerful women made sure they didn’t let a man come between them.
The man in question is not just any fellow but instead Camilla’s ex-husband, Andrew Parker Bowles. As Woman & Home reports, both women were in relationships with him at different times, and there were even very strong rumors that Andrew Parker Bowles had previously cheated on Camilla with Princess Anne.
If this is true, Camilla never held it against the other woman. Then again, Camilla may understand she’ll always be on thin ice when it comes to criticizing anyone else for their extramarital affairs, after she famously cheated on Andrew Parker with King Charles starting back in the 1980s.
How the death of Queen Elizabeth changed everything
So far, so good. What, then, could potentially put these fast friends suddenly at odds with one another? It all has to do with a change in the royal hierarchy following the death of Queen Elizabeth.
After Elizabeth died, many royals’ official titles changed, with the most significant being that Prince Charles became King Charles and Camilla, previously The Duchess of Cornwall, became the Queen Consort.
Though this may seem like just another day at the office for royals whose titles are shifting, body language guru Judi James told Express she felt Camilla’s new position could impact her relationship with Princess Anne. “Camilla is now not only above Anne in the royal pecking order, she has now taken the role of Queen in the place of Anne’s beloved mother,” she said.
And while your friend and relatively symbolically becoming your mother would be weird for any of us (paging Dr. Freud), James predicts things will be that much more difficult because of how close Anne was with her mother. “Anne’s closeness to the late Queen was never illustrated more than during the funeral and Anne is very much the family’s champion when it comes to regal behavior and protocols.”
It’s worth mentioning that at this point, all of this is just speculation on James’ part. Like so many of us watching royal intrigue unfold, she is curious “to see how [Anne] reacts” to Camilla, “whose rise in the royal ranks has far exceeded expectations.”
RELATED: King Charles Horrified By Queen Camilla Over Racist Incident
Camilla’s other controversies
At this point, whether Camilla and Anne will grow apart due to changes in the royal pecking order is anyone’s guess. However, given recent events, it looks like Camilla is likelier to drive family members away due to the controversies she causes rather than the crown she wears.
For example, toward the end of December 2022, Camilla was hosting an event to raise awareness of violence against women. There, a Black charity mogul named Ngozi Fulani was grilled about where she was “really from” by Lady Susan Hussey, one of Elizabeth’s former ladies in waiting.
Hussey no longer has any role in the palace, but the incident served to make the Royal Family look quite racist. And since it was Camilla’s event and she stood by and did nothing while Hussey made the entire family look bad, we can only imagine that Princess Anne was just as dismayed by Camilla as King Charles was.