Queen Camilla was 'hurt' by Prince Harry's book, friends claim

The Queen Consort was hurt by comments made about her by Prince Harry after he claimed she was "dangerous" and a "villain" who "left bodies in the streets", according to friends. In his book Spare, which was released back in January, the King felt a "red line" had been drawn by his son, 38, when he launched a stinging attack on Camilla. An aide described her reaction to the Sunday Times and said: "It was not stamping of feet or gnashing of teeth, it was much more of an eye-roll response."

Her companion, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, 68, a deputy lieutenant of Wiltshire, said: "Of course it bothers her, of course it hurts. But she doesn't let it get to her. Her philosophy is always, 'Don't make a thing of it and it will settle down - least said, soonest mended'.'"

In Harry's book he alleges Camilla, 75, had leaked stories about the Royal family to the media in a drive to transform her image.

"I have complex feelings about gaining a step-parent who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar," he wrote. He also told how his brother Prince William, 40, had "begged" their father not to marry her over fears she would become their "wicked stepmother". But back in 2018 his biographer Angela Levin quoted Harry as having a different view of his stepmother.

"She's not a wicked stepmother. Look at the position she's coming into," he said. "Don't feel sorry for me and William, feel sorry for her. William and I love her to bits.

She's a wonderful woman and she's made our father very, very happy, which is the most important thing." Lady Lansdowne revealed that during the "incredibly tough" 1990s when Camilla was continually followed by photographers and they were often outside her home Middlewick House, it was her strength of character that kept her going. "She was out on her own without any protection.

That was where we could help - she would come and stay with us with the children," she said. "I went and got her out of Middlewick one day, there were cameras up against all her windows." "But she is resilient, she was brought up with this extraordinary sense of duty where you got on with it, don't whinge, put your best face on and keep going, and it has stood her in very good stead. It was horrible at times, but her sense of humour and knowing she had her girlfriends around her got her through."

Camilla previously had a romance with Charles before she married Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973.

Another friend of the couple recalled: "Camilla was jolly and fun, but the last person you'd expect years later to emerge from a Bentley in a faux-fur hat - the last person you'd expect to be Queen." Lady Lansdowne, who is godmother to Camilla's daughter Laura Lopes, said Camilla did not even consider becoming queen when she was reunited with Charles. "She didn't ever assume anything about whether they could even be together.

It was never any sort of plan," she said. "It would make her laugh just to think of it [then]. It was quite daunting [when they married] but nothing she couldn't cope with. "Once they were married she knew what was coming.

The extraordinary thing is that she has taken it on now at 75.

It's a hell of a thing to be doing when most of us are settling down into retirement."