When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge go on tour, all of the photo agencies snap up the photos from all of their activities. I don’t know how many photographers are assigned to Will and Kate’s royal tours, but my point is that there are wall-to-wall photos. It’s not the same at all when Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall go on tour. I’m sure they travel with photographers too, but most of the British papers and all of the American outlets tend to ignore Charles and Camilla’s activities at this point. They ignore them… unless there’s a chance to criticize them. Which is what happened this week! Charles and Camilla are on a seven day tour of Australia, and few people outside of Australia are paying attention to them. But Australians are pissed off, because Camilla looked bored in the middle of the Commonwealth Games.
If she wants to be queen, she is going to have to try harder than this. Prince Charles’ wife Camilla Parker Bowles has been slammed after she appeared to be so bored while attending the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in Australia that she spent much of the presentation leafing through a program for the event. Broadcasters and commentators on social media voiced disbelief after a distracted-looking Camilla was repeatedly seen picking up a guide to the games, rather than watching the opening ceremony.
The Commonwealth is a loose grouping of British-allied nations—many, but not all, are former British colonies and some count the queen as head of state. The Commonwealth is one of the queen’s passions, but she no longer travels long haul, so it was left to Prince Charles and Camilla to preside over the opening ceremony for the games in Queensland. The queen has made no secret of her desire for Charles to be named next head of the Commonwealth, but the title is not hereditary and the deal is not done. Many influencers are lobbying for a non-royal as the next head of the Commonwealth—to make a statement of modernity.
Officials sought to downplay Camilla’s behavior during Wednesday night’s opening ceremony. Commonwealth Games Federation President Louise Martin said: “She was absolutely shattered. She was jet-lagged. She’d just got off the plane in the morning with a full duty right through [the day],” Martin said. “And then she sat in the car from Brisbane down to here. She got 20 minutes to change before she was due at another reception. When you’re back to back like that off a long-haul flight… and she literally hates flying. She really does, she hates it. She really wanted to go to sleep. She really enjoyed herself. I didn’t see the facial expressions et cetera, but the comments between the duchess and Prince Charles and myself, she was asking questions all the time. They both enjoyed it.”
I had to search around for photos of Camilla at the Commonwealth Games and honestly… if she looked bored, the photographers didn’t seem to catch it. I mean, she looked the way she always looked: half in the bag, tired, and sort of startled. It’s worth noting that she’s 70 years old (she turns 71 in July) – she’s not going to plaster on a “I’M SO KEEN” smile just for the hell of it. She was there, she was watching, what more do you want??!?!
Meanwhile, Charles and Camilla did a radio interview in Australia and Charles was asked if the stories are true about him traveling with his own toilet seat. Charles said: “My own what? Oh, don’t believe all that crap.” *clutches pearls* Charles said CRAP!! When Camilla was asked about it, she said, “Don’t you believe that!”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
