Queen Camilla slipped away last week, flying to India undercover. She’s still in India, staying at a pricey resort called Soukya, which is operated by Dr. Matai. The resort/wellness center is focused on holistic medicine. Both King Charles and Camilla have stayed at the resort before, and this is apparently Camilla’s seventh stay at the center. She checked in with “some friends” and her security. We learned some or all of this earlier this week, after some reports from India were seemingly confirmed. It’s driving me crazy that not only do we not know why Camilla slipped off to India last week, but the British media is making the whole thing sound like an inspo wellness retreat with zero drama. Where’s the outrage about the cost? Where’s the outrage about the lack of briefing from the Palace? Where’s the outrage about the lack of information about what Camilla is actually doing there? I thought of all of that as I read through the Mail’s curiously soft-focus coverage.
After an intense two months following King Charles’s accession to the throne, the Queen Consort has reportedly travelled to India to visit one of her favourite holistic health retreats. Camilla, 75, arrived at SOUKYA, an international holistic health centre in Bangalore last Thursday and it is thought she will stay there until later this week, the Times of India reported.
This will be Camilla’s seventh visit to the health retreat on a 30-acre organic farm, which offers yoga and Ayuverdic, homeopathic and naturopathic treatments. The late Archbishop Demond Tutu is also believed to have visited three times and actress Emma Thompson is a fan.
The visit, which is happening in a private capacity, will see the Queen enjoy some special treatments with friends at the £735-a-night retreat.
FEMAIL reached to Buckingham Palace for comment, who declined to comment on a ‘private matter’.
The newspaper reported that 75-year-old Camilla was accompanied by a few friends and her security detail from Scotland Yard’s Royalty and Specialist Protection squad.
‘There were strict instructions not to publicise her trip as it’s a private visit. No public engagement programmes or interactions have been scheduled during her stay,’ a source said.
Wellness expert Dr Matai, who founded the retreat, has been the personal physician for the Queen Consort and the King for years.
There is a variety of suites and rooms for guests to stay, ranging from deluxe to super deluxe special, which boast a spacious private garden with veranda, a pantry, king-size beds, an en-suite bathroom with a shower and bath tub and your own private outdoor shower. Prices start from £735/INR 42,900.
£735 a night. For Camilla, her friends and her security. Plus the cost of the flight to India, plus the security costs, plus the cost of whatever “treatments” Camilla is getting. Everyone has the right to medical privacy and the right to have a little private vacation, but I’m shocked at the double-standards in covering Camilla’s “private” vacation versus the Mail’s coverage of literally anything to do with the Sussexes. God help us all if Meghan went to a spa for a weekend, the Mail would have all-caps banner headlines about the cost of the spa, her security at the spa, “insiders” telling the world that Meghan doesn’t deserve spa treatments and questions about whether Meghan “brought Netflix cameras” to the spa.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar and Cover Images.
-
- Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, meets young women who have been supported by The Prince’s Trust, ahead of the charity’s ‘Brilliant Breakfast’ campaign, at Clarence House, London.,Image: 630371095, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: ©Eddie Mulholland / Avalon
-
- HRH Duchess of Cornwall hosting a reception for the British Equestrian teams from 2020 Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic Games.,Image: 660835221, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Steve Reigate / Avalon
-
- The Duchess of Cornwall, Patron of Jamie’s Farm, leaves after a visit to the residential farm in the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire. Picture date: Wednesday July 6, 2022.,Image: 705501579, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
-
- LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 12: Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall during The Oldie Luncheon, in celebration of her 75th Birthday at National Liberal Club on July 12, 2022 in London, England.,Image: 706844548, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
-
- Meghan Duchess of Sussex and Camilla Queen Consort The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, Westminster Abbey, London, UK – 19 Sep 2022,Image: 724168860, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock / Avalon
-
- Camilla Duchess of Cornwall at The Oldie Luncheon, in celebration of her 75th Birthday at National Liberal Club. Featuring: Camilla Duchess of Cornwall Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 12 Jul 2022 Credit: Chris Jackson/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
The royals have defeated the English people. Destruction was not coming from outside (like they thought with Brexit), but high above them, like birds of prey circling their green (and salty) island.
That’s roughly 70 000 rupees a night ! That’s insane. Most people in India don’t even make that much money in a year.
She’s getting some work done.
Makeovers don’t come cheap from this starting point.
Who pays for the Scotland Yard security when it’s for private trips like this? Taxpayers or BRF?
And if taxpayers pay, say, their daily salary, just as they might had they stayed on Salt Island, who pays for their travel expenses, accommodations, etc.?
Also…is this where Camz was when she needed her ex-husband to “represent” her at a mutual friend’s funeral last week? And if so…how does that count as one of her royal engagements, if she was off at a spa holiday?
Just curious…
Might QCC be trying to get sober? Or recovering from plastic surgery? I mean, why India?
My first thought was that she had to be “dried out” and “refreshed” on multiple occasions.
I would also accept needing to be thousands of miles away from King-baby Charles and his Netflix and pen tantrums.
Hmmm could be. Maybe having to deal with a painful broken toe in the midst of all the funeral and subsequent events she got a little too used to taking prescription pain meds and needed some place/time to ween off of them?
That could be. A broken toe HURTS. I would rather have another baby than break my toe again. I also imagine that Cams received no empathy or support from her husband for soldiering on with her injury. He seems too always feel too sorry for himself to extend understanding to others. Even the “love of his life”.
We have no idea if that broken toe story is even true and even if it is we have no idea how Charles responded. And in any case this woman did not need to go to India for a broken toe.
The comments about how she needs space from Charles don’t make sense. This is *exactly* how he has always been and she has trucked along with it. It’s why she lived so much at Ray Mill. She is perfectly capable and content doing her own thing in the UK for free.
@C Exactly. We don’t even know if the broken toe story is even true or something they made up to get sympathy for Camilla and give her good press. It won’t be the first or last time they do that.
I suspect she couldn’t physically make the long walks in the processions. Thus, the broken toe story.
Cammy must need lots of “wellness” time away from Chuck!
WTH? Can’t she just go soak in her bathtub at one of her many homes, castles.
Plenty of bathrooms in the family available.
The cost of this BS.
British taxpayers should be protesting in the streets!
I swear I am going to stop clicking on anything BRF! Idiots.
Call it whatever you want , this sounds exactly like medical resort they are a booming business. They have them all over India, central and South America where you show up at a luxury resort with 24 hour medical staff for a holiday nip and tuck. (I looked into them with a friend and we decided against it after talking to doctors in the states about the safety and infection rates) They are never cheap. I’m sure the cost of all of this is on the taxpayers which is just sad. My heart really goes out to those who are desperately struggling in the UK.
Prices start FROM… no way Queen Cams is staying in the basic rooms. Suites actually START FROM £820
This should have been the standard for every working royal, not just Camilla.
Sadly, it was not.
There has to be a demarcation between public and private.
For royals who do not do engagements, even doubly so.
LMFAO the resort home page features a picture of Charles and Cam (and Emma Thompson on the scroll).
Charles and Camilla’s photos are on the website, plus a special video message by Charles. Maybe Camilla’s getting free lodging in exchange for promoting the center. Have we heard before about her 6 other visits to the place?
Considering what the finished look will eventually inevitably be, aren’t they spending too much?
The Mails coverage is not surprising. Camilla has a deep friendship with the Mail and Meghan sued the Mail and won. Meghans coverage will always be negative.
If Camilla is paying for the trip out of their private money, and not on the public dollar, I don’t see a big deal with it. Her and KC3 have plenty of money from the Duchy of Cornwall income.
But is the security and Met royal protection officers being paid for by the taxpayer or privately? If paid privately why is Harry not also allowed to pay privately for security from the Met protection officers?
I agree. And honestly that’s not that expensive. I’m going on a 4 night Disney cruise and it’s costing me 3 grand American just for me and thats notceven my flight. If it’s a retreat that price may also include food. Security will accommodate Royals on vacation but not full time in the US.
I agree. I’d seriously consider shelling out that coin for this kind of retreat. I really could use something restorative like this. It’s not the price it’s the hypocrisy, I believe is the point, but she is the QC now. That’s gotta level up what the people will tolerate in terms of expenditures. I still think it’s hilarious that she peace’d out on all the drama in Britain though.
I doubt their security is being privately funded.
They absolutely do whatever they can to avoid paying for things themselves, and that includes lying about it. Why else do you think the royals insisted on exemptions from disclosing financial information for “the Royal Household” under the Freedom of Information Act?
And the Duchy of Cornwall income is just a smokescreen royalists use to try to obscure the fact that it was Charles’s own tax write-off with tons of shady operations.
It’s the Duchy of Lancaster income now, and the issue is the hypocrisy. Either we have a right to know what the royals are doing on their private time, and how much they are paying for it, or we don’t.
I think all individuals are entitled to privacy during their private time and unless the public is paying, then how much they spend is their own business. As the Royal Family is basically in the employ of of the citizens of the United Kingdom then you have to consider what is reasonable in regards to accountability to one’s employer.
The security personnel are likely paid on a salaried basis and the Queen Consort is not able to opt out of receiving protection due to credible risks to her safety. Is she never supposed to go anywhere ever again because her security personnel have to be housed and fed? That’s neither logical or humane.
No, honestly. These people have taken advantage of the idea that “even as royals, we deserve privacy” in order to use said privacy to embezzle and grift. This has been proven a thousand times before with the British royals.
The idea of considering what is reasonable in regards to accountability to one’s employer makes no sense here because there is no HR defined list of expectations and the people aren’t allowed to put that on them even theoretically.
How can they get away with this kind of crap? I just don’t get it. People are worried in England about paying to heat their flats, and Camilla gallivants off to a fancy spa in India. Appalling.
And yeah, the double standard — the outrage Meghan would face, even though she and Harry aren’t on the public dime — is appalling, too.
The outrage Meghan did face – remember her baby shower? If anything she did was a ‘private’ trip that was.
Yep. She was raked over the coals for that for years and still is, despite the fact taxpayers didn’t pay for a dime of it.
Ten bucks says she’s in a “holistic rehab” for, well, everything!
The double standard is sickening. I’ve neigh-ver seen such hypocrisy. Hehe.
My tin foil tiara tiara theory: Cam goes to a wellness center in India. Cam is not going to be coronated with a crown with a looted jewel from India. The new PM is of Hindu heritage. Kate is “patron” of a Britain Asian (Indian) officer for an Antarctic expedition. All this is going on while the UK is trying to lock up a trade agreement with India. Coincidence?
and the reason for 6 previous visits would be ?
Paid advertising. To use her image on their promotions like they are doing now.
Do you know for a fact that there were previous visits? Or even, really, if there is a current one?
I’m floored by the 8-minute video of Charles that’s prominently displayed on the facility’s homepage. Even if he’s ostensibly speaking about a 2013 medical meeting that was held there, the video’s continued inclusion implies a huge endorsement of Soukya by Charles for nearly a decade now. I would have expected the BRF to be more professional and way above such endorsements, but that was before this naive American’s continuing education into BRF family values and suitcases of cash.
The double standards are sickening but but we know why there’s no outrage. It’s because of Camilla’s cozy relationship with the press especially the DM.
India also got rid of e-visas for Brits and there are no appointments (even super priority) for visa processing anywhere (like even Belfast) for the next two months. So how did they manage to get there so easily when normal people have lost thousands in bookings and literally can’t get to India for things that are more important than a rich westerner going for a pseudo holistic retreat that really is a money grab?
“the late Archbishop Demond Tutu” Seriously? Le sigh….
Personal physician to C&C? Are “medical treatments” how they justify these vacations? If so, it’s very clever.
Hope some type of mental health service is included in all of their treatment regimens. Also sounds like someone might be getting more suitcases full of cash…
Their personal physician is a snake oil salesman in India? Sounds very Windsor.
There will be no outrage. The outrage is reserved for the Black Duchess who, by the way, is buying all her clothes, paying all her bills, and bankrolling her vacations and spa days with HER OWN MONEY.
No, the tax grifting QC will not be dragged for her extravagant spending at the taxpayers’ expense. That’s solely reserved for Meghan who shouldn’t be allowed to have nice things, even when she spends her own money.
Honestly this sounds like a girls week away… only it’s really far away! My mom is in this age range and does week long trips with her girlfriends. Yea it’s pricey but par for the course for the English upper crust or upper crust adjacent!
This is the Queen Consort, not the upper crust that have their own money.
Camilla has really got to have her cake and eat it too. After she married Chuck, she still maintained a separate residence – with royal security. They were married, but she wasn’t always living WITH him. She’s got it real good, doesn’t she? All the perks.
Sounds like someone needed a little work done before the coronation.
Just stopped by to comment that I’ve been rewatching Downton Abbey.
I like Downton Abbey better than the actual BRF these days.
DA has all the excellent scenery, fashion, manners, drama of the upper crust plus the actors are better looking vs. Chuck & Cam. lol
And now, a snotty remark. I don’t care what kind of “refreshing” they do to Cam, she was still a rotten B*tch to Diana.
Holistic health retreat. How very California!!! These people are such freaking hypocrites.