I’m starting to get a really weird feeling about Queen Camilla’s “lingering chest infection.” About a week after Camilla and King Charles’s return from their whirlwind Australia-Samoa-India tour, Camilla came down with a heavy cold or “chest infection.” She canceled a lot of events, including her Remembrance appearances. Then she appeared fine at diplomatic reception (she wore oodles of diamonds), plus she did some appearances at palace events that week. Then, she was suddenly sick again, with the same chest infection. She pulled out of attending the Royal Variety with Charles, and she pulled out of other events last week. Her big return was supposed to be today, at the welcome ceremony for the Qatari state visit. Only she pulled out of it, although it sounds like she is NOT pulling out of the state dinner (oodles of diamonds, darling).
The Queen is to pull out of the ceremonial welcome during the Qatari state visit because of the lingering side effects of a chest infection, Buckingham Palace said. However, Her Majesty will attend other elements of the day, including the lunch at the Palace.
It is understood the programme has been tweaked because the Queen, who contracted a chest infection after her long-haul trip to Australia and Samoa, has been left with significantly diminished reserves of energy. Doctors have advised Her Majesty to take the time to rest and fully recover.
The Queen will miss the outdoor event on Horse Guards Parade where the King, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, will join the Emir of Qatar and his wife on Tuesday. She will not be present for the carriage ride back to Buckingham Palace either.
But Her Majesty will be present at the Palace lunch on the royal party’s return and is hoping to view an exhibition in the Picture Gallery. The Queen will join the King and their guests for photographs at the start of the banquet in the evening and will attend the banquet itself. But she will take a short break before dinner while guests are being met in a receiving line.
My most generous read of this is that Camilla doesn’t want to be outside in the cold when she’s still slowly recovering from a bad cold (or whatever it was). My gossip read: the “welcome ceremony” is supposed to be all about the Princess of Wales making a big return to work, so Camilla is letting Kate have those headlines. Especially since Camilla has ensured that Kate isn’t coming to the state dinner. My nasty read: Camilla has always been known as a pretty lazy person, and I think she’s trying to be more choosy about where and when she’s seen too, just like Kate. It could be that all of these explanations are partly or mostly true.
Update: Camilla told people today at the palace events that she has a form of pneumonia and that’s why her health has been struggling for weeks. If only she had a fully staffed communications office which could have said that weeks ago, instead of saying it was a cold?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Diplomatic. Photo credit should read: Aaron,Image: 936503943, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Diplomatic. Photo credit should read: Aaron,Image: 936503979, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
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- Queen Camilla during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Diplomatic. Photo credit should read: Aaron,Image: 936504000, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
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- Queen Camilla during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Diplomatic. Photo credit should read: Aaron,Image: 936504103, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
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- Queen Camilla during a farewell ceremony at Siumu Village on the final day of the royal visit to Australia and Samoa Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: Siumu, Samoa When: 26 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Queen Camilla laughing during a farewell ceremony at Siumu Village on the final day of the royal visit to Australia and Samoa Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: Siumu, Samoa When: 26 Oct 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Queen Camilla presented with an honorary doctorate on the university’s Foundation Day at Senate House in London Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Queen Camilla presented with an honorary doctorate on the university’s Foundation Day at Senate House in London Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 20 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Queen Camilla during a reception for winners of the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition, at Buckingham Palace Featuring: Queen Camilla Where: London, United Kingdom When: 21 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Do any of Kate and Camilla’s events overlap today? Will they both be at the luncheon or just Camilla? Bc otherwise, it comes across as avoiding each other.
Both are supposed to be at the luncheon.
Thx so they’re not avoiding each other😂
That was my first thought when I read the headline too. But late also wasn’t at The Royal Variety show. It’s all weird though.
It seems as they’re avoiding being photographed with each other..
Plus she is probably setting things up where she won’t have to go on any more foreign tours since she hates to travel so much (unless it’s to a spa).
I think its probably a combination of two of those – she is still genuinely recovering from the chest infection and doesn’t want to be outside if she doesn’t have to be (and it could be that she feels better for a few days and then feels sick again), and she is being choosier about when she is seen. I said this back in February – when she took those two weeks off or whatever after William went missing for a few weeks – I think her mentality is probably, “I’m 76, I’m tired, I have this infection that won’t go away – if the heir and his wife can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum, why do I have to?”
I don’t think this is about letting Kate have the spotlight; if anything I think it may be about avoiding Kate in public (since the luncheon is at the palace but I think only a few pool photographers are there if any.) I think if she was interested in letting Kate have headlines Kate would be at the evening events in tiaras.
ETA also, I wonder if she is having issues standing for long periods. She’ll be at the lunch, she’ll be present for photographs, but won’t be in the receiving line. She did the diplomatic reception a few weeks ago but maybe that was too tiring for her since AFAIK that’s not a seated event?
I mean yeah. Camilla has watched Kate take off most of the year for health reasons. Kate made a video proclaiming herself better in September but still is not doing regular events. So she’s gotta be thinking why should she have to do every single thing. If she’s not feeling great and wants to space her events then she will. They will both be at the luncheon but I didn’t realize that there would be so few photographers there. Hmmm.
Both are a waste of space. Lazy, haughty, and married to men they are living separately from. GOT games are what they deserve. They bring nothing note to the table and have no impact or legacy.
Ever since Kate came down with her mystery illness they all figured out that they could just cut and run if they didn’t feel like doing anything on any particular day.
It’s a running joke atm at the number of *sickies* our RF are taking since Liz passed
That’s actually the real underlying story here. Although I’m not a great fan of the former queen, as I recalled she was out there doing her appearances when her legs looked swollen, and her veins looked blue. At the time, she was also much older than any of these remaining people with intermittent pre-cancer/cold-infections. Like Charles, it seems that she really took this stuff seriously whereas the present lineup just enjoys the benefits and shirk the “duties” and “protocols” which were always hailed as important before.
🎯
Wow she really doesn’t want to be seen with Kate.
I wonder if she will attend the Keen Kristmas…
Also, pet peeve, queen consort not queen.
A title she only got because Charles blackmailed the queen when she needed his permission to pay 13ish million to someone Andrew claims he never met.
Elizabeth said and it was written the title would be queen consort. Charles announced she would be called queen after his mother died.
So the bastard immediately went against his dead mothers wishes?
She can only be Queen Consort constitutionally. Charles changed her title, not status.
It’s a distinction that people on here love to harp on but its pretty meaningless. the Queen Mother was queen consort, as was Queen Mary, etc. they all went by Queen, not Queen Consort in their official titles. Once it was announced that she would be Queen Consort, I think it was pretty clear she was just going to be the Queen.
@Becks – As a Brit who can remember that we were promised that Camilla would never become Queen I think it does matter. The real Queen found (what she thought to be) a compromise so, yes it does matter to a LOT of people that they dropped the Consort. As it went against what was originally promised as well as going against the wishes of QEII. I’ve no doubt that we (the British people) would have become lazy and called her Queen Camilla just like a lot of people call Kate Princess Catherine instead of Catherine Princess of Wales. However, it’s not the title which irks many it’s that “they” went back on their word.
However, if “they” had truly meant for Camilla to be a Princess Consort they would have issued Letters of Patent shortly after their wedding. As once she married Charles she would automatically become Queen (same as Kate when she marries William.) Charles knew this (and I imagine QEII did as well) and chose to play the waiting game. Camilla becoming Queen with or without the Consort really isn’t the issue. It’s the lies and deciet that were used to ensure she received the title that they promised us she would never have.
Consort is a role not a title. The wife of a king is a queen whether people like it or not.
I think part of the issue is that there was a Queen Regnant serving many years on the throne. People were used to calling ER II “The Queen.” Camilla does not have the same role ER II had.
Actually Bec, it’s not meaningless. Status is different to title. Not one of them can ever be regnant.
@cerys: agreed, but there is a substantive distinction between status and title constitutionally.
I never believed she would be called princess consort.
I thought calling her Princess Consort was as odd as calling her Duchess of Cornwall when she was out with Charles as the Prince of Wales. Mind you, I don’t call her ‘The Queen’ I just refer to her as Camilla.
When I read anything about this bunch, in my head the names are Chuck, Camz, Willy and Waity.
I call him Willie because I have no respect for him whatsoever. My favourite name however for him and Kate is Cain and Unable.
My nasty take is she got her crown and now she doesn’t want to do her duty.
I agree with you. My even nastier take is that she got the crown that Diana didn’t.. and she can drape diamonds from head to toe and she will still look like an old crone, just one with the Crown Jewels.
It sounds like she’s got one of those lingering post-viral issues where you keep thinking that surely you’ll be properly well again tomorrow or by the end of the week, but when you go out and try to do ordinary things, it turns out that you’re not better at all.
I hope for her sake that it’s not long covid. But they’ve been so cavalier about covid precautions that it could be.
She and Charles should have masked up at events like indoor receptions.
They really should have, especially since Charles is so ill.
It would have set such a good example too. If public figures are seen to be taking it seriously, it helps other people do the same.
I bet they have TOP-NOTCH precautions: tons of air purifiers, required testing, UV systems, etc. Still, I wish ANY of these fools would wear masks in public. They’re high-profile people dealing with illness—if they wore masks to protect themselves, there are a ton of “normal” people (who almost certainly don’t have access to the kinds of virus protection the royals get) who might follow suit.
But I read a study once that found that people tend to spend less money when they’re around people in masks, so I figure EVERY celebrity, including the royals, has a vested interest in not reminding people that covid is Still A Thing.
One of the unfortunate effects of getting older is it takes longer to get better.
I hope Kate does not choose a cringeworthy outfit like that red outfit and hat where she just happened to get photographed showing showing her legs and part of thighs.
Honestly sounds like covid with the exhaustion and the recurrence. Maybe they should not treat it lightly, lol.
That was my thought. Lingering effects from a bout of Covid, like maybe to the extent that she cannot sit through a long event without embarrassingly excessive coughing, or she gets fatigued too quickly to stand in the receiving line.
@acha – There is a new respiratory illness going around in the UK which they are calling RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). Perhaps Camilla has succumbed to that. Many of these respiratory viruses lead to pneumonia. I developed it in 2017 and I have not been completely well since. I am only three years younger than Camilla.
…or would it be a disaster if the news came out that 3 of the 4 “best” royals had cancer? She’s been a heavy smoker most of her life – I don’t wish that on anyone, but she’s the age where it catches up with you.
Tinfoil theory. Amongst the various reasons Kate is being benched. I have my own suspicions that it’s because Camilla is not long for this world so that lily livered grown man in britches and knee high stockings is making sure his wife gets as many opportunities to wear hideously huge tiaras and have all the benefits of being a queen consort before she shuffles off this mortal coil. I feel nothing
Trouble with all the jewellery is it draws attention to her face and neck. It doesn’t flatter as a single piece of jewellery on beautiful skin does.
If Camilla really has some sort.of chest infection she needs to sit out the Qatari state visit completely. She and Kate are so quick to use illness to get out of work.
I wonder if c and c got pneumonia vaccines and r s v vaccines. Hopefully they did. Both are at risk.
They most certainly are.
For basically 68 years the Queen just regularly showed up to things and the British people and world did not get daily updates on her everyday ailments. And so she was a symbol of stability and lived to 96. In 2 years essentially 90% of reporting on these people is health related and excuses for not being able to perform the basic functions of the job.
I braved the DM comments and was greeted by the gem from one commentator who was worried that KATIE was in danger of overdoing things by turning up!!! The responses were joyously funny because one thing you could NEVER accuse either Kate or Camilla of overdoing things on the work front. My favourite replied that a brief photoshoot, sitting in a carriage and eating a good meal and polite chit chat was hardly taxing!
Maybe they don’t want her openly laughing at foreign people anymore, so she’ll just be at events where consuming alcohol is accepted and she’s too sloshed to notice anyone else.
Sorry not sorry, this woman is awful.
Between the decades of smoking and a bad chest cold, no one wants Cams hacking up a lung and wheezing all over the place. Sometimes it takes weeks for a gross raspy cough to go away.
Camilla is an elderly lady recovering from a chest infection so it makes sense not to be standing around outside in the cold. However, as someone else has already mentioned, perhaps she is also struggling to stand for long periods of time due to other health issues.
That header picture made me snort with laughter.
I laughed at the second picture as it looks like she has some food stuck between her teeth. LOL
My gossipy read is that Kate and Cams are avoiding each other 😂😂
Her face really does tell the story of her years of smoking and internal nastiness.
I can see anyone with chest issues, pneumonia or long covid not standing around outside in the cold. On the other hand, Charles the cancer is doing his duty. Anyway, just saw a reel of the lunch, and Sophie, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and Duke of Kent were also there. Come to think of it, Edward didn’t seem to be. Kate was there, the only one still wearing her hat and coat. I remember a picture from a visit to Sweden of Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel with one of their children in their living room with Kate and William. Kate was wearing a coat. Someone asked why Kate was wearing a coat, and the palace mumbled something about protocol which is utterly ridiculous. I don’t know what the reason is, maybe Kate just sets her thermostat higher than the average person. To my mind without a sensible explanation, it just made Kate look rude. Certainly at the lunch, Kate stood out- she’s tall and wearing a hat and coat.
Access to one of the most astounding jewelry hoards on earth and she pulls out the tiara that looks straight out of Party City
Hang on, hang on. They mentioned she’d be 1) taking part in the photos pre-banquet & 2) at the actual banquet, although not part of the 3) receiving line between photos & banquet. So, that’s three events, is it? Is this how they rack up hundreds of ‘work’ events in a year? What a gig!
I think Camilla has more issues with chronic pain and mobility than the palace is admitting. The menacing grimacing grinning reads as chronic pain in my opinon. I doubt she can comfortably sit or stand for long periods of time, especially decked out in uncomfortable shoes and evening attire. The bling may be gorgeous, but the dresses are heavy and the “pretty” shoes can hurt. Long dresses can be a tripping menace if your mobility isn’t great and even lightweight footwear can feel heavy as lead if you have mobility issue/arthritis. The courtiers have been actively doing their thing lately. (Spinning stories about Meghan and Harry constantly). I figured most of that was because of Harry’s lawsuit going to trial in January, but I wonder if some of it isn’t to divert attention from how poorly Camilla (and Will-not) seem to be doing.
C likely has mycoplasma pneumonia aka walking pneumonia, cases of which are skyrocketing right now. There is no vaccine and anyone who’s had Covid is susceptible.