Queen Camilla fought off a would-be attacker with her shoe as a teenager, a new book claims.
The alleged incident is recounted in a new tome about the British monarchy, Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street, an excerpt of which was published by the Times of London on Sunday, August 31.
According to author Valentine Low, the Times’ former royal correspondent, Camilla, 78, shared her experience with former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a meeting at Clarence House in June 2008, when Johnson was the Mayor of London. Johnson apparently relayed the story to his communications director, Guto Harri, who shared it with Low.
“They obviously got on like a house on fire. He was making guttural noises about how much he admired and liked her,” Low quoted Harri in the book. “But the serious conversation they had was about her being the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a schoolgirl.”
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According to Harri, the queen was around 16 or 17 and on a train to Paddington, London, when “some guy was moving his hand further and further.”
Johnson asked Camilla how she reacted, to which she allegedly responded, “I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.”
“She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me,’ and he was arrested,” Harri told Low.
Buckingham Palace declined Us Weekly’s request for comment on Monday, September 1.
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Camilla married husband King Charles III in April 2005. She was previously married to British Army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, with whom she shares two children: Tom Parker-Bowles, 50, and Laura Lopes, 47.
Camilla is also stepmother to Charles’ two sons — Princes William, 43, and Harry, 40 — through her marriage.
Another book published in February, Yes Ma’am: the Secret Life of Royal Servants by Tom Quinn, alleged that Camilla wasn’t interested in becoming queen upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
“One member of staff told me that at one point, Camilla hated the idea of being queen and would regularly say to Charles, ‘Can’t we get away from all this protocol? It’s all bollocks,” Quinn wrote.
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“Charles, who hates swearing, would demurely reply, ‘You’re doing it [becoming queen] for me, darling,” Quinn added.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
