British Royal Wedding

A word from the Queen led to the Duchess of Cornwall’s announcement that she would not be attending the Diana memorial service.

According to insiders, Camilla agonised to her mother-in-law about the dilemma she felt her presence would present. Buckingham Palace had watched with growing unease the insistence of Clarence House courtiers that Camilla’s presence at the event would be “appropriate”.

It triggered a series of rows between the duchess and Prince Charles, who wanted his wife to be at his side for Friday’s thanksgiving service at the Guards Chapel. Privately she was known to be uneasy and reluctant to attend but Charles insisted she should.

As late as last Friday, Charles’s aides were still briefing that Camilla would be in the front pew alongside the rest of the Royal Family. But at Balmoral, where the duchess is on holiday with her husband, she had already had second thoughts.

Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, said:

“Camilla probably thought it was her duty to go, but now she’s been let off the hook. It could have only come from the Queen. It could have only come from the highest. She probably said, ‘You don’t have to do this, Camilla - you really don’t have to do this’.

All eyes would have been on her. We would have been thinking, ‘What’s Camilla doing? Is she crying? Is she feeling awkward?’ It would have been awful for her. It was madness to think she should have gone.”

In a statement yesterday, the duchess said that she was “very touched to have been invited by Prince William and Prince Harry to attend the thanksgiving service for their mother Diana, Princess of Wales”. She went on:

“I accepted and wanted to support them, however, on reflection I believe my attendance could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion which is to focus on the life and service of Diana. I’m grateful to my husband, William and Harry for supporting my decision.” (read entire Daily Mail article here)

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 5:36 am and is filed under General, Princess Diana. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.