Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy's Fight for Survival

Part I: Camilla—The Transformation of a Mistress

Born into an aristocratic family with a penchant for socializing and the fine life, Camilla Shand’s upbringing thoroughly prepared her for the royal life. She attended the Queen’s Gate school as a young girl, an institution focused on preparing upper-class girls for socializing and running a big house. Instead of obtaining a higher education, she attended a Swiss finishing school. Camilla is proud of her education, a concerning thing to Scobie in an era where the classist and sexist ideas underlining the kind of schooling Camilla has had are thoroughly outdated.

Camilla grew up with not just the skills to socialize, but the sensibilities to withstand any circumstance without crumbling. She grew up in the 1960s, and though she was not among those women advocating for equality and feminism, she nevertheless reaped the benefits of the time, especially the “sexual freedoms” women enjoyed. This is partially why the Palace rejected Camilla as a suitable partner for Charles. However, Camilla didn’t let this stand in the way of her relationship with Charles or the rest of her life. As Charles and Diana wedded, Camilla herself married Andrew Parker Bowles, and she continued to be there for Charles all the same. Despite both of them having married, Camilla welcomed Charles into her home and life whenever he needed her; over the years, she became an essential part of his life as a firm supporter and confidante.

Charles and Camilla’s affair proceeded quietly until things blew up in the ‘90s, with Diana publicly airing her marital grievances. The Queen ordered Charles and Diana’s divorce; Camilla’s husband sought to marry one of his lovers; and Camilla ended up the most hated woman in the nation. Because of her “stiff upper lip” upbringing, however, she stayed quiet and resilient. She maintained her silence publicly and continued to prioritize her relationship with Charles.

The Palace eventually came to recognize and appreciate this composure, and once it became clear that Camilla was a non-negotiable part of Charles’s life, set out on a mission to rehabilitate her image. Over the years, the Palace transformed her perception from “the other woman” to “the woman who waited,” through PR appearances and events. Acceptance of Camilla became official in 2005, when Charles and Camilla finally wed.

There was still work to be done, and Camilla’s friendships with important people and celebrities would soon become invaluable. Her close friend, the former morning show TV host Piers Morgan, was the editor-in-chief at the Daily Mirror; he carried out some of the most aggressive reporting about Diana during her lifetime and has also been generally negative in his reporting about Meghan. Camilla is also friends with actress Dame Judi Dench, who uncharacteristically spoke up and criticized the Netflix series The Crown for its fictionalization and sensationalization of certain events surrounding the royal family. This came at a time when the fifth season of the show, focused on Charles and Diana’s marital troubles, threatened to knock down Camilla’s popularity. Despite this, Camilla is adept at forming independent relationships with the media and tabloids through her natural charm and good humor; she is generally well-liked by the tabloid journalists for her willingness to engage in a way the other royals aren’t.

The same cannot be said for the entire royal family. Camilla’s relationship with William and Harry is complicated, and it took them a while to accept Charles marrying her. William and Kate have enjoyed a closer relationship with Charles and Camilla after Harry and Meghan’s departure, while the latter has no relationship at all with her anymore. Camilla’s relationship with her own two children is extremely strong.

As a working royal, Camilla has put in the work to earn the Palace’s appreciation. She is involved in numerous charities, including those for important or less glamorous causes, from domestic abuse to osteoporosis (her mother died after suffering from the latter). Following Charles’s ascension to the throne, Camilla took on the title of Queen, despite initial claims that she would only be “Queen Consort.” However, Camilla is not particularly desirous of the throne, as some believe. She simply sees it as an unavoidable part of life with the man she loves, and she remains as committed to Charles as she was from the beginning. Now, as Queen Camilla, her rehabilitation appears complete. While the Palace machinery was responsible for a lot of it, one cannot discredit her efforts.

Part II: Kate—Suddenly Front and Center

Kate—or Catherine, Princess of Wales—has always maintained a smaller work schedule than the other working royals. This partly comes from her shy and introverted personality. She prefers to do engagements and outings that involve children or sports, where the focus is on her actions and not on her words. Kate also had an easier time staying away from public events, especially initially, as the focus was on her role and duty to produce an heir and spares. Because of this, both the Palace and the media have been far easier on her than on others in the family.

A large focus of Kate’s work has been the cause of early childhood development: She established the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. However, because her royal role requires her to stay away from politics, Kate has only been able to amplify findings rather than push for actual solutions. Despite this and the far fewer number of engagements Kate does, the media reportage surrounding Kate has been largely positive because of the role she plays in the royal family.

When Meghan came along, however, she initially slipped into this aspect of the royal role very easily. Her background as an actor meant she was comfortable being in front of the cameras and engaging with the press, and she was able to handle a wide range of engagements with efficiency and grace. When reportage started focusing on Meghan’s different work accomplishments, William and Kate’s team quickly took notice and sprang into action, forcing her to change her approach.

There has been a lot reported on the relationship between Kate and Meghan. The initial distance between them stemmed from the rift between the brothers, but over time, it also widened because the two women have very little in common. Additionally, Kate was not particularly helpful or supportive to Meghan, despite also having come into the family as an outsider from a non-aristocratic background. Although Kate and Harry were once close, there is now no going back, especially after the Sussexes’ split from the royal family and the interview that aired after.

After Harry and Meghan’s departure, Kate was forced to come out even more into the public eye, and she has done so fairly successfully. She appeared on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast and spoke up about a range of issues sincerely and vulnerably, including her struggles as a mother. She also took on engagements and projects more fitting to her background and skills. This included curating a well-received photography exhibit following the pandemic, calling on her sensibilities as an art history graduate and passionate photographer, and an exhibition match with teen ace Emma Raducanu, with Kate herself an avid tennis player.

While Kate has come a long way with the Palace’s help, her family background and upbringing have contributed. In addition to instilling values of resilience and acceptance, Kate’s family actively worked toward placing their daughter in aristocratic circles. They sent their three children to exclusive private schools, and Kate’s mother especially encouraged her to take a gap year before attending the same university as William, the year he was to begin at St. Andrew’s. This ambition and resolve Kate inherited from her mother saw her through a long courtship—and even a brief breakup with William—before the couple eventually married in 2011.

After marriage, Kate disappeared into her royal role. Any negative tabloid coverage that existed about her before the wedding completely vanished, as Kate had the Firm’s support to mitigate these kinds of stories. This has also been helped by how reticent Kate has always been in sharing anything about her personal life, even before she married into royalty. The new Princess of Wales has proved that she is willing to sublimate herself completely into the demands of the role, unlike her predecessor, Diana.

However, Kate also distinguishes herself from other senior royals by the far fewer number of royal engagements she participates in. This stems from a focus on her family before the Crown; her duty is first and foremost to her children. Thus, there is a question mark about Kate’s future and how she will handle the increased work and public scrutiny, the closer she and William get to the throne. One will have to wait and see what happens when the time comes for her to step into the spotlight completely.