While Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall may one day sit on the British throne beside her husband, Prince Charles, it might not be as “Queen Camilla.”
“I honestly don’t know if Mum will be called queen,” her son Tom Parker-Bowles, told The Timeson Thursday. “That hasn’t been decided. There are a lot of interesting Sky documentaries about that I’m sure, but I honestly don’t know if that’s true.”
The question of Camilla’s future title has been debated since a press release was shared on the day of her 2005 engagement to Prince Charles, which said “It is intended that Mrs. Parker Bowles should use the title HRH The Princess Consort when The Prince of Wales accedes to The Throne.”
Despite this, it is now widely believed that Charles intends to make his wife Queen Consort in the days after he’s crowned King, although nothing has been confirmed by Buckingham Palace.
Chris Jackson/Getty Queen Elizabeth and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
The palace also removed the question of whether or not Camilla will be Queen from the FAQ on Charles’s official website a number of years ago.
Ian West – WPA Pool/Getty Images Tom Parker Bowles
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview, Tom, 46, also opened up about the portrayal of his mother in season four ofThe Crown, which saw a young Camilla (played by 2021 Oscar winner Emerald Fennell) and Charles (Josh O’Connor) conduct a passionate – if complicated – relationship behind the back of his new wife, Princess Diana (Emma Corrin).
At the same time, Tom’s father, Andrew Parker-Bowles, was also shown having a romantic liaison with Princess Anne. The truth, however, according to Tom, is far less entertaining.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in her new portait
“The Crown is beautifully filmed and beautifully acted but complete bollocks mostly,” he told The Times. “I saw a bit with my dad and thought, ‘God, you’ve got him wrong,’ but I would say that, wouldn’t I?”
As for the real-life soap opera surrounding the life of his stepbrother Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Tom added simply “What can I say? Families are never easy, but they’ll work it out in the end.”
Colin Hutton / Netflix Emerald Fennell as Camilla Parker Bowles
Tom continued, “I stay out of that. That’s nothing to do with me.”
Since the funeral of Prince Philip on April 17, the Duchess of Cornwall has returned to work, paying tribute to her late grandfather-in-law at the second season launch of her book club, The Reading Room, which is dedicated to “discover[ing] new books and meet[ing] the extraordinary people who create them.”
Christopher Jackson/Getty Images Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall
Camilla used the moment to honor the Duke of Edinburgh, who passed along his BookTrust patronage to her in 2011.
“As Patron of BookTrust, which I inherited from my late father-in-law His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, I would like to dedicate the next series of my Reading Room to him, in memory of a great fellow reader,” she shared on Instagram.
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Victoria Jones – WPA Pool/Getty Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Kate Middleton at Prince Philip’s funeral
While Tom is extremely close to the royal family — his children call Camilla “Gaga” and Prince Charles “Umpa” — he told The Times he did not personally attend the Duke’s Windsor Castle funeral.
Despite this, the events still left a huge mark on Tom, who works as a restaurant critic for a British national newspaper and tragically lost his girlfriend Alice Procope, 42, to cancer four weeks ago.
“I really blubbed during the Last Post,” he said about watching the funeral from his home in London. “I didn’t know Prince Philip at all but it was all very moving. The clear blue sky, the music… We’ve lost so many due to Covid it also felt like a chance to mourn that loss too.”
