A new book by royal author Valentine Low, titled Power and the Palace, reveals an incredible story about the Queen’s teenage years. According to Low, when she was a teenager, Queen Camilla fought off a man who assaulted her on a train by hitting him in the groin with her shoe. This incident reportedly took place in the mid-1960s on a train to London’s Paddington Station, and she was about 16 or 17 years old at the time.
According to Fox, the story was reportedly told by Camilla herself to Boris Johnson when he was the mayor of London. It was Guto Harri, Johnson’s former communications director, who shared the story with Low. Harri recounted how Camilla told Johnson, “I did what my mother told me, I took my shoe off and whacked him in the nuts with the heel”.
The most important part of the story is what happened next. When she arrived at Paddington Station, Camilla immediately found a “man in uniform” and told him what had happened, which led to the man being arrested. It’s believed that this incident is the reason why Camilla is so dedicated to supporting charities for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Queen Camilia fought off an assaulter when she was young
Guto Harri himself said that she was “self-possessed enough” to find help after the attack, which speaks volumes about her character. Since she married King Charles in 2005, she has become a patron or president of more than 100 charities, with one of her main focuses being on supporting survivors of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence. This is a person who has taken a difficult personal experience and turned it into a way to help countless others, and I have so much respect for that.
Even with her history of helping victims, Camilla has been hesitant to publicly discuss her own experience. She feels that her assault, while upsetting, is less serious than the attacks other women and girls have endured. She doesn’t want to draw attention to herself at the expense of their experiences.
This is a really humble and thoughtful approach, and it shows why so many people have come to admire her. It’s not about her; it’s about the people she’s trying to help, and that’s just a beautiful thing to see. She’s faced many issues, including those over health, but she’s remained strong.
The book also explores other aspects of her life, including her relationship with King Charles III and Queen Elizabeth II. But this specific story of her bravery as a teenager is something that really stands out. She isn’t just supporting these causes because it’s part of her royal duty; she’s doing it because she genuinely understands the struggle and the pain that survivors go through.
