Dunlop: Queen Camilla isn’t popular in Australia because of Diana & Meghan

King Charles and Queen Camilla touched down in Sydney, Australia on Friday evening, then rested on Saturday. I’ll cover their Sunday visit to the Anglican church on Monday, but here’s an interesting note – the church visit was originally supposed to be low-key and quiet, but the courtiers must have been worried that it would too quiet, so they made a specific appeal to Aussies to come out and see Charles and Camilla. As much as there’s a larger conversation about the crown and whether Australia should become a republic, don’t miss the fact that Camilla is not and has never been an asset to her husband. Don’t miss the fact that Camilla will forever live the shadows of more popular royal women:

Queen Camilla’s Australia tour with King Charles “won’t be easy” due to “less agreeable” crowds Down Under, an expert has warned. According to royal expert and historian Dr Tessa Dunlop, with all eyes on the King, it could be a trip that Camilla finds particular difficult.

She explained to the Mirror: “The press corps have flown in and the King has postponed his cancer treatment – everyone is set for Charles’ first tour to Australia as monarch. Headlines have been full of it – the political snubs from Australia’s premiers, to the pared-down itinerary and absence of walkabouts. Will Charles’s 17th visit down under, seal the deal for Republicans or set royal hearts aflutter?”

“With all eyes on the King, there has been less talk of Camilla, who will be touching down as Australia’s new queen. Her gig won’t be easy – she has giant shoes to fill and not just those of the late Queen. Against expectations, it was just over 40 years ago that Australians surprised themselves and fell in love with a fresh royal fairy story – cue the arrival of Charles and Diana on a six week tour in 1983. Staunchly Republican Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, had been hoping that the incoming Prince and Princess of Wales would seal the deal for dumping the British monarchy. Not a bit of it. Crowd surges, overwhelmed police, flags, flowers and gridlocked roads: 1983 saw the start of a brand new phenomenon: Diana-mania.”

“The public’s love was unadulterated – so much so that Prince Charles, who had been trying to woo Australia since 1966, took umbrage. Sadly Diana is long gone, but while here in Britain we have grown fond of Queen Camilla, who has been rehabilitated in our press, in Australia memories of the ‘other woman’ and Diana’s rough treatment at the hands of the royal family are more pronounced.”

But it’s not just memories of Diana that might work against Camilla in Australia, as Tessa explained another factor may hinder her popularity. She added: “Nor has the international fall-out from the Harry and Meghan debacle helped Camilla’s cause. The Sussexes’ departure from the Royal Family followed hot on the heels of their 2018 Australia tour, with Harry subsequently airing ‘wicked stepmother’ tropes and citing Camilla’s ‘dangerous’ connections. The King and Queen, who have not been to Australia since Megxit, will find new dissenters in the pack. Fortunately the trip is short, and positive polling for an committed monarch with cancer bodes well, but beyond the summer sun, Queen Camilla will be on alert for a less agreeable Australia lurking in the shadows.”

[From The Daily Mirror]

It’s especially wild that Charles and Camilla’s tour is the first major Australian since Harry and Meghan’s 2018 tour. The connections, six years later, are so pronounced. Harry and Meghan were wildly popular and Meghan was regarded, internationally, as a bridge to the future for the monarchy, a breath of fresh air, a woman of color who was uniquely situated to modernize a staid and racist institution and drag the colonialist mess into the 21st century. And right after that tour, the Windsors began their campaign to drive Meghan out by any means necessary. Camilla was a huge part of that campaign, just as Camilla’s fingerprints were all over every part of Diana’s misery. I hope Camilla gets booed especially hard in Oz.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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82 Responses to “Dunlop: Queen Camilla isn’t popular in Australia because of Diana & Meghan”

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  1. Tessa says:

    Now she’s mugging for the cameras like keen does.

    • Pinkosaurus says:

      Ugh, her smile is horrible. The entire royal family need to stop with the gurning and jazz hands. It’s so unattractive and undignified.

      Does anyone remember when Charles gave Camilla the highest honor of Australia shortly after the coronation? I understand for Australians it’s very prestigious, like the US presidential medal of freedom or the UK CBE. I wonder how the other esteemed recipients like having their lifelong accomplishments equated to the consort’s service to Chuck? 🤢🤮

  2. Anonymous says:

    A Squaddie mentioned on social media that the reason the courtiers advertised the event at the church was to piggyback onto another event that was already scheduled which usually has a huge turnout. The courtiers want to use that event’s turnout to appear as interest in Charles and Cowmilla. Wow. They are so diminished.

    • Scooby Gang says:

      Yes! I saw the same. This seems to be the only way they can appear to have fans. Plop the lazy leftovers onto a street where people are gathering *for some other reason*.

      They tried the same during Peg’s big boy NYC trip. What losers.

    • Barb Mill says:

      I saw the church arrival on twitter yesterday. Very few came out to see them and inside the church area they brought out a class of sunday school kids(maybe 20) to greet them before entering the church.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      The royals’ team literally had the local police kettle a crowd destined for an *entirely unrelated event* (Crow’s Nest Festival, per local Squaddies), to make it look like people were standing on line in the street to catch a glimpse of Charles & Camilla. The caucasity of these people, istfg. The rest of the poor locals were just out and about trying to get their papers and a cup of b-starding coffee.

      Fred & Gladys were met with protest banners almost as soon as Chris Ship flung out that mapquest tweet begging people to show up. “Your Empire Is Built On Genocide” was probably the best one I saw.

      I think in terms of how the Tour team handled the situation, Vinslayer15 on Twitter said it best: “It’s giving ‘Please clap’.” But with even less enthusiasm than anyone could ever muster for Jeb Bush… which is saying a lot (there’s a man who would make porridge oats look fascinating).

      And Chris Ship is still being dragged the length and breadth of Al Gore’s internet nearly 24hrs later. LOVE that for him, lmao. Given the repeated own-goals, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a royal tour so much since WanK were blanked by the entire Marley family and then fired on live TV in Jamaica.

      Wish some of the anti-monarchical papers in Oz would do more front page features on Simon Charles Dorante-Day, though… apparently Fred & Gladys have had him put on a security watch list… and I didn’t know this before – his adoptive mother worked for Her Late Maj?? Wow.

      • CherryBerry says:

        I had to look up Simon Charles Dorante-Day. Is there any credence to the story? The fact that his adoptive mother worked for the Queen is interesting.

      • Where'sMyTiara says:

        @CherryBerry not sure but there is soooort of a resemblance? I hear he was put on a security watch list to keep him from trying to collect DNA from the pair.

        I personally would have paid good money to see Gladys get her wig snatched on live television…:shrug:

  3. Tessa says:

    Camilla is not replacing the monarch Elizabeth. The new monarch is Charles. Charles goes skipping down those steps of the plane with Camilla left standing awkwardly with that umbrella. This is going be another flop tour.

    • Mrs.Krabapple says:

      Exactly. She is replacing Philip, not Elizabeth.

      • kirk says:

        It was stupid for Tessa Dunlop, PhD to suggest QConCam was going to fill QEII shoes. It makes her sound uneducated, especially for someone who appears to be supportive of UK hierarchical monarchy.

  4. Libra says:

    “Rehabilitated in our press. ” Finally an admission of the unwritten contract. At what cost.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      The costs were alienation of the King’s two sons from their only remaining parent, and the exile of the youngest & his family.

      The costs to Fred & Gladys are still being tallied, as we see how unpopular those decisions to sacrifice other royals to boost themselves have been to the wider public.

      This is the real reason behind why Cluck hates the Commonwealth. He believes his own UK press (that he knows he helped manufacture), and gets sh-tty with people when they don’t all adore him for being the first male to fall out of his mother’s womb.

      He’s trying to rule his family with an iron fist and the majority of people outside Salt Island witnessing that have roundly rejected him for it. He’s hated and he 100% brought that on himself for the way he treated his 1st wife and his own kith & kin.

    • BeanieBean says:

      Ha! I just commented the same further down. They admitted it! Right out in the open!

  5. Amy Bee says:

    It was interesting to see people like Chris Ship almost begging the public to come out to see Charles and Camilla at church today. It seems like they got a reasonable turnout all things considered or maybe the camera angles made it seem so. The royalists will make the effort to come out and see them but they’re not going to get the huge crowds that Diana and Harry and Meghan got when they visited.

    • JR McGraw says:

      1. Love this for them
      2. There is video trending of Camila being so rude to people who lined up to greet her it’s probably going to warrant its own article on the site tomorrow (What is up with supposedly upper-class people acting like trash and having no manners??)
      3. I hate, hate, hate her zip front dresses. They look so tacky and dumb. Even if she is wearing them because of shoulder problems or mobility issues, my God she has a personal dresser and tailor, conceal the stupid zipper? It’s small, but it bugs me every single time I see it

      • lamejudi says:

        Oh, I feel exactly the same.

        She could have a tailor conceal the zip with a decorative placket (maybe even covered with buttons). Instead she always looks like she’s wearing a wash-and-wear housecoat.

  6. aquarius64 says:

    Camilla will always be seen as the woman who Anne Boleyn’d her way to become queen consort. Memories are long and the internet never forgets. Camilla did torment Diana and she allegedly helped the BM weaponize Bad Dad Markle against Meghan. Funny Dunlop hasn’t mentioned Kate’s popularity on Australia…or is there?

  7. Jan says:

    Chucky and Cain have no manners whatsoever, rushing ahead of their wives, on plane’s ramp.
    Cowmilla was ignoring the crowd, looking straight ahead with a side way glance at them once in awhile, what an ill mannered Hag.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      Gladys coming down the airplane stairs is like a racist groundhog trying to see its shadow… if the crowd isn’t all white, she spins around and goes right back on the plane to sit, sulking on the tarmac like she did in that car in Kenya.

  8. Josephine says:

    I can only imagine what a huge disappointment it must be for the royals to realize that keen khate has no charisma, charm, or draw. I imagine they were hoping for another Diana, someone to prop up their saggy and lazy personas. And when they were handed their new Diana in the form of Meghan, a natural and someone who is actually warm, they lost their minds and tormented her to appease their new lazy losers, side piece and waity.

    • TigerMcQueen says:

      I don’t think the royals wanted K to be another Diana. They liked her because she’s mid, ok enough to get some attention for wearing clothes, but not charismatic enough to draw too much attention or garner the kind of love from the public Diana had.

      It’s K and her mum who are disappointed she’s not another Diana, but they seem to have thought Diana was adored simply for wearing clothes and it wasn’t that at all.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      Need to remember that it wasn’t just Cain & Unable that were threatened by H&M – Fred & Gladys were seething as well. All four of them tried to scupper that wedding in various ways – even as Fred was trying to mine it for his own PR – and have worked in two separate teams to try to pry H&M apart ever since. BP likes to pit KP and H&M against each other, because if the brothers are fighting they’re not challenging Fred & Gladys. I feel like Gladys comes up with the game plan and Fred rubber stamps it, because he prefers to see his sons not challenge him either.

      Fred is living King Lear (with a Lady MacBeth at his side) in real time and I don’t think he has enough self-awareness about that.

  9. FeedMeChips says:

    Is everyone but Camilla just standing in the rain without an umbrella? What a bizarre graphic.

  10. samipup says:

    I’m waiting for all the great photographs Kaiser will post…….👀 📸 😉!

  11. TN Democrat says:

    Lort. Willy and Charles and Camilla and Keen are big fish in a small pond they forget they manipulate to maintain their bigly status. They really do believe their own press manipulations. If Charles hadn’t been open about his cancer diagnosis/putting treatment on hold for this trip, this trip would have been widely protested. Camilla would never have been loved and blaming Meghan/Diana’s popularity misses the mark. People are indifferent to Camilla because of her mean girl energy towards rivals and sycophant energy with Charles.

  12. girl_ninja says:

    Of the British royals, isn’t Princess Anne even more popular than the Mistress Queen? Where is she popular other than barely in England? Her husband is barely liked anywhere.

  13. Eurydice says:

    I love this bit – “Fortunately the trip is short, and positive polling for an committed monarch with cancer bodes well…” basically saying, they won’t stay long enough for people to get too riled up, and the polling wouldn’t be so positive if Charles didn’t have cancer. Dr. Dunlop is making good use of her PhD in Imperialism and Culture.

    • kelleybelle says:

      I don’t think he has cancer. I’m convinced it was a BS sympathy move, and same with Kate.

      • Eurydice says:

        Oh, I think he does. Charles is king for life – he doesn’t need a sympathy vote. Kate’s the one whose position in the RF could be precarious.

      • kelleybelle says:

        @ Eurydice, they were both the royal racists, them having cancer at the same time, highly suspect. Too coincidental, especially since “it isn’t cancer” occurred with both of them … and then is WAS cancer.

      • Sparky says:

        @Kelleybell and Eurydice I do think that Charles has cancer as he doesn’t look well. I also think he wants adoration as opposed to sympathy. (“Charles is an amazing King — coming to see us even though he has cancer.” As opposed to “Poor Charles, he’s so sick.”) That said, following up on the premise it’s too much of a coincidence that Kate and Charles have cancer at the same time, I could easily believe that Charles has cancer and Kate is faking it.

      • Where'sMyTiara says:

        @kelleybelle Hard agree. It was too coincidental, to the point of looking absolutely scripted. And we know how much the UK tabs love writing their little fanfics.

      • Eurydice says:

        @Kelleybelle – it certainly seems coincidental. I’d ask which of the two, Charles or Kate, has a reputation for faking appearances? And which of the two has been totally squirrelly, weird and contradictory during this whole year?

      • Kateee says:

        I hate to don my tinfoil hate so early but for me it was Kate’s absolute rush to step on his announcement that made everything so sketchy. Remember, she had told her staff zilch and had appearances scheduled when she suddenly evaporated during a “planned” surgery. As if W&K got wind of a Charles public illness plan and decided to beat him to it. Which was partly why Charles was so happy to let them twist in their failures for so long–the other part being personal enjoyment.

        (I’d still put my Kate money on mental health issue, which is pretty rich to hide considering their professed goal of ending the stigma, but that’s her business. They’ve dropped it anyway in favor of homelessness and arly years)

  14. Agnes says:

    Aussies don’t like Camilla because she’s a vicious, skanky ho and they have great good sense.

  15. Jks says:

    I remember reading the headline or comments at the time saying that Meghan was Diana x 2 when she was visiting Australia.

    I also recently saw for the first time, an old photo of Diana surrounded by a very large crowd, bursting into tears in Australia because Charles had been an absolute a hole to her. Such a heartbreaking photo.

    I think Australians are well aware of just what a nasty woman Camilla is.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      Both Cluck and Cloppy are nasty. They think the world doesn’t remember but receipts were kept.

      • Joanne says:

        Cluck and Cloppy, that will stick in my head now. I will and forever after refer to them by those names. Thank you.

  16. kelleybelle says:

    “Queen” Camilla is unpopular because she’s a crass, ill-mannered sow and an adulterer.

  17. yipyip says:

    Diana was a sheltered 19y/o when she was engaged and who was treated cruelly by both Charles and Camilla.
    Camilla was vile to her. And spent years controlling and manipulating behind the scenes.
    I still can not stand her.

    Diana was popular and beloved because she was sincere in her charity work, and she loved her boys.

    I would show up to Boo them both!

    • Looty says:

      Showing up somewhere to boo Camilla just went on my bucket list.

      • Where'sMyTiara says:

        I have visions of them trying to visit the States and being given a welcome in Boston similar to the way Red Sox Fans greet the Yankees in the first rival match of the season.

        Think UK football stadium songs, but with more swearing. And tea bags in the streets, not flowers!

      • Debbie says:

        As a Bostonian, I say, “Great, let’s teabag them — and not in a fun way.”

    • Jais says:

      I’d show up with photos of Diana Harry and Meghan. How amazing would it be for a huge group of Australians to greet her with photos of Diana and signs saying not my queen. Along with not my king signs for Charles of course.

  18. Nic919 says:

    The tours were always a process of diminishing returns over the years, with the sole exception being Harry and Meghan being super popular.

    Kate and William brought baby George who was not seen much in public prior to then and that is similar to when they brought Charlotte for the second Canadian tour and showed her in public when she had not been seen much.

    It’s likely being nice to Meghan would only have been a stop gap because the generations who cared about royalty were shrinking as it was. Canadians, Australians and any country not with the UK media machine, don’t view these people as anything but rich British celebrities who are stuffy.

  19. Unicorn Leprechaun says:

    Unfortunately a lot of the ‘mainstream’ media in Oz still reproduces the vilifying rhetoric against meghan, that you’d see in the fail, Sun etc

    But there are also those of us who can see the smear, and the underlining racism in the articles, and can form our own opinion on H&M.

    We don’t see a need for a monarchy. What value do they bring?
    We’re an independent country, and have forged our own path and culture away from British rule.

    We also see & remember Camilla for the snarky, fake, soulless horse-face that she is.

    • Lady D says:

      I’d like to see them off our money. There are a lot of Canadians who deserve the honour ahead of this clown, followed by Willie’s unfortunate mug.

      • Oh come on. says:

        Me too, @Lady D. Have you seen any money with Snubby’s mug on it yet? I hear there’s a coin, but thankfully I haven’t noticed it yet. Bank of Canada seems to be slow-rolling the new $20 with Snubby on it.

        From the BoC website: “ The Bank expects the new $20 note to be issued in early 2027.”

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      How many of those outlets have ties to Murky Murdoch, though?

  20. Giddy says:

    May Camilla reap what she has spent years sowing. May all the hatred and manipulative lies she sent at Diana rebound on her. May all the jealous snark and racism she aimed at Meghan come back to her times ten. May the British press finally show some spine and tell the truth about their king and his sidepiece queen.

    • Cara Aponti says:

      Giddy, I say Amen to your listed wishes for the evil, horse faced creature who torture Princess Diana and later conspire to do the same to Princess Henry, Meghan.

    • Where'sMyTiara says:

      Amen. May all their dark deeds over the years – to Diana, to Meghan, Will & Harry, and to all the indigenous people they’ve ever harmed and insulted on every single tour they’ve ever made, finally start boomeranging back onto them with this Australia trip.

      Seems appropriate and fitting tbh.

  21. Kaaaaaz says:

    It’s true. We hate Camilla for hurting Diana and being the scheming homewrecker that she is. H & M didn’t intensify it, we thought she was vile long before Meghan came on the scene.
    Di was wildly popular here. Even a staunch republican Luke myself adored her.

  22. Aerie says:

    My takeaway from this article is that even in death, Diana rules over Camilla. Also, Kate is barely a footnote in the royal scheme of things when Meghan, gone now nearly five years, continues to have a greater impact on the reputation of the family than Kate and William combined.

  23. Bebe says:

    She isn’t popular because people don’t tend to like old home wreckers tied to creepy dusty families

  24. Cassie says:

    The coverage here was all very positive as expected .
    Footage of excited fans , some hardcore royalists .
    Some they interviewed in a state of adoration , one lady in absolute awe of having shaken Camillas hand ,Sickening ,
    The children were handpicked and very sweet and innocent .
    I was surprised at the younger people in the crowd also ,
    Charles looks pretty well actually and generally happy and appreciative on his 17th visit here .
    Don’t like either of them but it all seemed to go well I guess .
    I wouldn’t cross the road to see them myself ,
    The police presence was huge and the protesters were well held ,
    Only a couple more days of this shit left thankfully .

    • Nic919 says:

      I haven’t seen any coverage in Canada which is not what happened when Harry and Meghan went to Australia. There might have even been a few Canadian reporters on the trip.

  25. yipyip says:

    I do love the idea of crowds turning up with photos of Diana!
    That would be magnificent. I wish I’d thought of it. 👍

    Diana really was the jewel in the crown.
    But Chuck, Cam, the Grey Men were too stupid to see her as the Star. Bunch of idiots.

    Even now, I give William a pass pretty often, just bc I think Diana had so much hope that he would be a better man for the future.

  26. BeanieBean says:

    They flat-out admitted it, ‘Queen Camilla, who has been rehabilitated in our press’. It’s not the job of the press to ‘rehabilitate’ anyone. It’s their job to report facts, to investigate, to analyze, to speak truth to power.

  27. Shoegirl77 says:

    I don’t know which genius at BP thought it would be a good idea to send Horsmilla out in the rain with a blue dress and a brolly but it’s just showing her up extremely unfavorably by drawing comparisons to the iconic photos of H and M in the rain. Not to mention the photos of Diana dancing with Chucky in Australia, also in a blue dress.

  28. AC says:

    British and Aus media can’t force the rest of the world to like the Homewrecker. So many people loved Diana and won’t forget what the horse did to Diana and her family.

  29. tamsin says:

    Saw a clip of Camilla holding her hand out to be shaken, but literally ignoring the people who want to shake her hand. She was staring straight ahead and not interacting at all. Astonishing! She clearly doesn’t seem to give a damn.

  30. yipyip says:

    Camilla isn’t popular anywhere.
    Even QE called her “That awful woman”
    but then Liz got old and sick and C&C kept on plotting.