Duchess of Cornwall reveals busy schedules often keep her and Prince Charles apart

Life is hectic for the busy royal couple, but the Duchess of Cornwall reveals she and Prince Charles still always make time to connect.

The Duchess of Cornwall said the couple’s busy schedules often keep them apart. Picture: Jamie Hawkesworth/Vogue

The Duchess of Cornwall has said it is “not easy” finding time for her husband, describing their relationship as “like ships passing in the night”.

Camilla, 74, revealed that the couple’s busy work schedules often keep them apart, but said that she and Prince Charles, 73, who have been married since 2005, “always try to have a point in the day when we meet … and discuss the day”.

In an interview with Vogue magazine to mark her 75th birthday next month, the duchess said holidays were a chance for them to spend more time together. “You know when we go away, the nicest thing is that we actually sit and read our books in different corners of the same room. It’s very relaxing because you know you don’t have to make conversation. You just sit and be together.”

In the July 2022 issue of British Vogue, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall sits for her first portraits for Vogue in @ClarenceHouse: https://t.co/QivuzMZu3wpic.twitter.com/SsN8E848dv

— British Vogue (@BritishVogue) June 18, 2022

Some of her favourite books include William Boyd’s Restless, Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Elif Shafak’s The Architect’s Apprentice and Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet Chronicles.

Camilla also admitted she had found years of often unfavourable media scrutiny “not easy”. She said: “You’ve got to get on with life. I was scrutinised for such a long time that you just have to find a way to live with it. Nobody likes to be looked at all the time and, you know, criticised. But I think in the end, I sort of rise above it and get on with it.”

Earlier this year, the Queen expressed her “sincere wish” that Camilla will be called “Queen Consort” when Charles is king, and the future queen said she would not give up campaigning for causes close to her heart, including her work against domestic violence. “Oh, I shall carry on as much as I can,” she said. “You can’t desert things that you’re in the middle of. There’s a lot still to be done.”

This year the Queen expressed her “sincere wish” that Camilla be called ‘Queen Consort’ when Charles is king. Picture: Steve Solomons/Buckingham Palace/AP

Speaking about her work with survivors of domestic abuse, Camilla, who is patron of the charity SafeLives, said: “I think we all know somebody who it’s happened to. I was hearing it too often, from friends who knew friends, and I thought maybe I ought to look into it to see if there was somewhere for me to help. There’s been such a taboo. People can still love the people that abuse them, and feel such guilt and such shame that they think it’s their fault, so they bury it. It becomes a sort of terrible hidden secret.”

The duchess also insisted she was a feminist, and said a part of her role she most enjoyed was championing unsung women: “I meet so many women who I find totally inspirational. Those are the stories I love hearing. People who started with no confidence and they go on to make a mark in the world and fly the flag for women.”

Camilla, whose birthday is on July 17, was photographed for Vogue at Clarence House, her London home. She joked that she now lets birthdays “come and go” but admitted she would be “very happy to turn back the clock”, adding: “When you get to any big number, whether it’s 30, 50, 70, you think: ‘God that’s so old’.”

Prince Charles and Camilla at Royal Ascot. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The duchess conceded that before the pandemic, she was not an avid user of social media. Charles is known not to own a mobile phone, but Camilla has attempted to master technology to help boost her online Reading Room book club, which launched during lockdown and now has 138,000 followers on Instagram.

“I hardly knew what Instagram was. I didn’t even know where to find it or how to get on it. We battled a lot to get it [the Reading Room] going. To my complete amazement, it took off. What’s so wonderful is it took off all round the world, and now I get letters from Papua New Guinea to the tip of Chile. It’s a real community.”

The July issue of British Vogue is available via digital download and on newsstands from Tuesday.

The Sunday Times