Queen Camilla is deeply problematic, profoundly unpopular and constantly boozy. And yet, I would argue that Camilla is one of the shrewdest operators in the Windsor clan. When she married Charles in 2005, she put together a smart team and quickly put together an issue portfolio which is, frankly, above reproach. She became the patron of various women’s shelters, rape-survivor and domestic-violence charities. She does it all for her image, of course, but as I’ve said before, her work actually matters to those women and those charities. Camilla’s PR runs circles around the heir and his wife, and she is breathtakingly wily. Well, now she’s got a documentary about her behind-the-scenes work called Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors. Remember when Camilla told everyone that she was fine being called the Princess Consort? LMAO.

The Queen has vowed to keep on fighting to end the scourge of domestic abuse until she is “able to no more”. In a powerful new ITV documentary, Camilla, 77, speaks extensively about what inspired her long-running campaign to end such violence and the courage of the survivors that propels her on. She is filmed meeting many victims, including one woman who nervously shares her story for the first time shortly after arriving at a refuge. The Queen admits that until she met somebody who had been raped by a partner, it had “never occurred” to her that a woman could be raped at home.

She acknowledges that the very concept of someone in her position taking part in such a documentary in the 1950s would have been inconceivable because domestic abuse was a taboo subject and “people just blocked their ears”. But despite the huge strides made since then, she insists that there is much more that needs to be done. One in four women and one in six men in England and Wales currently experience some form of domestic abuse, with an estimated three women a week taking their own lives as a result.

“Don’t let’s kid ourselves, it’s going to take a long long time because it’s been going forever,” the Queen says of her desire to end such “heinous” crimes. “It’s been going, well, since time began. But I think if you look at the steps that we’ve taken since the bad old days, we have made a huge amount of progress, and I shall keep on trying till I’m able to no more.”

Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors charts her ongoing work in the field after she allowed a camera crew to film her engagements, both public and private, over the course of a year. The one-hour documentary features compelling testimony from several victims of domestic abuse, including MP Rosie Duffield and Sharon Baker, chief inspector of Avon and Somerset Police, as well as high-profile campaigners such as Cherie Blair, Theresa May, Jess Phillips and Sir Patrick Stewart.

[From The Telegraph]

I’m sure Camilla will get some well-deserved criticism for her public activism compared to how she treated Diana and Meghan. I’m all for it. But the thing is, this documentary is really clever. William’s dumb homelessness documentary was a two-part self-centered mess in which Slumlord Baldy yammered about “solving homelessness.” Camilla’s doc is just one hour, and she’s platforming an issue which is actually really significant and needs more attention overall. Now, is it also funny that Slumlord Willy and Camilla are running around, doing documentaries given all of the outrage over the Sussexes’ Netflix shows? For sure.

Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors is a new documentary following The Queen as she works to raise awareness of domestic and sexual violence.

Coming soon to ITV1 and ITVX@RoyalFamily #ITV #ITVX pic.twitter.com/Skag5BziH7

— ITV (@ITV) November 1, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.