It’s been one year since King Charles and Queen Camilla were officially crowned at Westminster Abbey. The coronation was held about six months after Queen Elizabeth’s passing, and now, one year on, it’s safe to say no one could have guessed what was to happen.
Aside from the ongoing feud between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which up until this day is at a low point, the most upsetting news about King Charles and Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis has put the royal family at a crucial waypoint.
While the two senior members have been away from royal duties, Prince William and Queen Camilla have stepped up their efforts to uphold royal engagements and meetings with the public. Camilla and Kate have spent many days together while out on royal duty, and while they appear to be quite different, that might not necessarily be the case. Some royal experts have now disclosed more similarities between the queen and the future queen.
Monday, May 6th, marked the first anniversary of King Charles’ coronation. The grand coronation at Westminster Abbey—and gatherings all around the UK—was a day of joy for royal fans as King Charles and Queen Camilla officially became king and queen. However, plenty of people had other views.
King Charles & Queen Camilla – one year since coronation
While many agree that a coronation was a historical, no-expenses-spared event to be celebrated, others argue that the monarchy itself no longer warrants a place in modern society.
British media outlets speculated that the coronation cost around $120 million altogether, though neither Downing Street nor Buckingham Palace confirmed the exact cost.
According to a YouGov survey published just weeks before the big day, more than 50% agreed that the royals should fund the coronation themselves. That number was hardly helped by an investigation by The Guardian newspaper, which placed King Charles’s fortune at a staggering £1.8 billion (around $2.2 billion).
The total sum for the coronation was said to be double that of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953. One main increase was the costs attributed to heightened security.
As a result, security at the coronation was extremely tight. The streets along the route from Buckingham Palace were packed with people, and over the weekend, many other events were held to celebrate Charles’s ascension to the throne.
The Metropolitan Police and British military carefully planned the coronation weekend to ensure the safety of all involved. A reported record is that 11,500 police worked on the event as part of British history’s most extensive security operation.
Kate Middleton didn’t want Meghan Markle in attendance
While King Charles and Queen Camilla took place in the limelight, the ongoing feud with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle put a dark shadow on the coronation. Meghan decided not to attend the significant celebration at Westminster Abbey, while Prince Harry kept his distance from his brother and sister-in-law, Kate MIddleton.
Royal family members were said to have been relieved that Harry decided to fly back to the US straight after the coronation ceremony. Meanwhile, if Meghan Markle had attended, royal expert and former BBC journalist Tom Bower said that Kate Middleton would’ve ensured they were sitting far away from any royal family member.
“We must all be grateful that Kate, in the end, I think, prevented Meghan from coming and said she ‘wouldn’t have her there under any circumstances,’” Tom Bower said on GB News some weeks before the coronation last year.
Moreover, Bower alleged that the Princess of Wales warned Meghan: “If she [Meghan] did come, she’d have to sit at the back.”
Queen Camilla and Kate Middleton were just two family members who received hefty criticism from Harry and Meghan. Harry called Camilla “wicked stepmother” as he recalled his feelings about her becoming a larger part of the family when his mother died.
Moreover, in Spare, he gave details on private text messages between his wife, Meghan, and Kate Middleton, among other things.
Queen Camilla and Kate Middleton both had a history of being criticized in British tabloids, which possibly brought them closer together. Surely, the two have discussed what the estranged Duke wrote about them at some point.
Camilla praised for efforts while King Charles & Kate MIddleton undergo cancer treatment
As Kate is receiving treatment for her cancer and King Charles is just now returning to royal duty, Camilla has taken on a great responsibility for the royal family to uphold their standards of serving the nation.
While Queen Camilla is known not to love life in the spotlight, she has put all her energy towards serving The Crown. For example, she doesn’t like giving speeches, but as King Charles isn’t there at the moment, she does it.
Moreover, royal expert Angela Levin said earlier this year that Camilla has left her comfort zone” and done all her engagements – which King Charles typically was scheduled to do – with “grace.”
Last week, Camilla was the sole representative of the royal family, attending the Easter service at Worchester Cathedral while Charles continued his cancer treatment.
In a segment on GB News America, royal expert and former royal correspondent Charles Rae praised the queen for supporting King Charles and Kate Middleton in this troublesome time, calling her a “remarkable asset.”
Rae explained that Queen Camilla has “proven herself” in recent years, not least because of how she was treated after Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
“She has proved to be a remarkable asset”
He added that Camilla is “one of the best things to happen to the Royal Family” in a “good number of years.”
“There’s no question about it, she stepped into the breach. She’s got everything on her shoulders with what’s going on, and she’s taking on even more work,” royal expert Charles Rae said.
“Everywhere she goes, she has got a cheery smile on and a happy face. She says the right things. She has proved to be a remarkable asset to the Royal Family, given the allegations that at one time she had bread rolls thrown at her in a supermarket car park.”
Rae concluded, “I remember her when she was the most hated woman in Britain. I’ve met her several times and she’s charming, she’s witty, she’s really nice to chat to, and certainly when she’s chatting to people, she has done her homework as to who she’s chatting to.”
Queen Camilla and Kate Middleton have been seen as great partners for many years. Before her wedding to William, the now-queen brought Kate to lunch, where Camilla is said to have given Kate some advice for what was to come.
“If I can give you one bit of advice,” a person dining next to them,” he overheard Queen Camilla saying.
“They were all getting on very well and they clearly hadn’t asked for an out-of-the-way table and nor did they attempt to lower their voices,” the person told the Daily Mail.
Kate struggled to take advice from Queen Camilla in the beginning on royal life
“There was one moment which was clearly meant to be amusing when Kate said, ‘What happens if William doesn’t turn up?’”
The person at the lunch added that there were several “hand-holding” occasions, a sign that Kate and Camilla were getting along very well.
Camilla is said to have given Kate Middleton a very personal gift for the wedding present: a bracelet with the engraved letters Cs on either side of the charm. It’s not a wild guess that they stand for “Catherine” and “Camilla.”
As per Yahoo, Kate has worn it for several years when appearing at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
In his royal biography, Battle of Brothers, author Robert Lacey stated that Kate struggled to take advice from her stepmother-in-law.
Camilla wanted to ensure that Kate knew what she had to do to make her marriage with William work. It was a subtle warning to Kate and a guide regarding how she’d make a successful royal career with her future husband, William.
“Camilla had confided to Kate the secret of hanging on to a busy prince: fit your timetable – well, basically your whole life – around his,” Lacey wrote in Battle of Brothers.
While there have been some tense moments between the two, Camilla and Kate are the two most influential women in the royal sphere.
Royal experts lays out new striking similarities between Camilla and Kate
While they have both been slandered by the press and have had to build up their trust with the public, it appears that there are many more similarities between them.
GB News host Isabel Webster said that Queen Camilla and Kate MIddleton have very similar ways of supporting their husbands, while royal expert and biographer Angela Levin explained that Queen Camilla has an instinct for great timing.
“I wrote her [Camilla’s] biography, and she’s got this very strong instinct of knowing what is right at the right moment,” Levin said on GB News program Breakfast.
“The fact that she could take all the nastiness when they separated from Diana, that now she knows exactly what King Charles needs.”
Levin added, “She’s been there so solidly with the work and the engagements when you saw the picture of their 19th wedding anniversary that came out yesterday, you can see that they are so interactive together. I think that feeling you are loved is just as important as having a pill.”
Isabel Webster continued by explaining how much Camilla and Kate are alike.
“I think there’s a lot of similarities between the Queen and the Princess of Wales. I think they’re both such great partners for the King and Prince William, just temperamentally as well,” she said.
“They’re very good in the background at supporting the leading man, and they’re sort of quite stoical and I can see why actually both of them have chosen those leading ladies.”
“Camilla helped Catherine know what to do”
Levin added: “Which has obviously helped William get on better with his father. Camilla helped Catherine know what to do when she joined the Royal Family, she knew what the protocol was and how to help her. Catherine was very grateful, unlike Meghan, who she tried to help as well and was not interested.”
Kate Middleton is still in cancer treatment, and we hope to see her back in public as soon as possible. In the meantime, we’re sure that Camilla and Charles are giving her the best support possible and that the queen and the future queen will have many great together ahead.
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