Queen Camilla 'welled up with tears' over 'harrowing' moment during women's refuge visit
Camilla has been a very public advocate for womenQueen Camilla has spent a lot of time visiting women’s refuge centres over the years, and it seems she had shed a lot of tears during these moments.
Over the years, Queen Camilla, 78, has tried to shine a light on women affected by domestic abuse. In 2024, she was part of an ITV documentary on the subject and spoke to victims affected.
But that wasn’t the first time. Back in 2021, Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, visited a women’s refuge in Reading, where she met residents living in the building. And it seems she was overcome with emotion.
Queen Camilla almost ‘reduced to tears’ during conversations at women’s refuge
Journalist Claire Cohen, who was at the event alongside Queen Camilla, has recently spoken to The Times about how impactful the experience was. And not just on her, but on Queen Camilla too.
It appears that during the conversations Camilla would find herself being heavily moved by the things she was hearing. So much so, that Camilla reportedly felt the whole thing was “quite harrowing”.
That almost reduced me to tears. It’s quite harrowing.
She said: “I noticed her eyes well up more than once during these intimate conversations. And more than once, I felt like an intruder listening in.”
Claire actually recalled what Camilla told her afterwards. The queen said: “That almost reduced me to tears. It’s quite harrowing. You think you have become immune to it after a bit, but then you hear somebody like that girl.”
Camilla also told Claire about the first time she ever visited a refuge in 2016. And following the visit, the queen “couldn’t” go to sleep, because everything was “going round” in her head repeatedly. She admitted that she felt “helpless” over the whole thing.
Camilla spoke about domestic abuse impact
In an ITV documentary which aired in 2024, Queen Camilla opened up about the terrible impact abuse can have.
She said in the documentary: “If we could just get more people discussing it. Coercive control is almost the most frightening bit of domestic abuse.
“You meet somebody. You think they are wonderful, attractive and love you. And then bit by bit, they start to undermine you.”
Since giving her public support, the queen has been praised on numerous occasions for helping to raise awareness.
Queen Camilla’s own assault attempt claims
Just last week, royal author Valentine Low had a segment of his new book, Power and the Palace, published in The Times. And it was there in which he claimed that Camilla was the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a teenager. She had reportedly told Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London – who went on to tell his communications director, Guto Harri.
In the book, Harri says: “The serious conversation they had was about her being the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a schoolgirl. She was on a train going to Paddington – she was about 16 or 17 – and some guy was moving his hand further and further..”
When Camilla was asked by Boris Johnson what happened next, according to Harri, she said: “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.”
Buckingham Palace hasn’t made any official comments on the reported incident, and Queen Camilla hasn’t publicly spoken about it.
Read more: Queen Camilla makes glamorous appearance at York races without King Charles
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