Business as usual. King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla stepped out in public for the first time since Prince Harry‘s memoir hit shelves.
The sovereign, 74, and his wife, 75, were seen driving together in an Audi on Sunday, January 15, in Scotland. Charles was behind the wheel as they headed to Crathie Kirk, which is near Balmoral Castle. Crathie Kirk is their church of choice while at the Scottish estate, which is often the royal family’s summer residence.
Charles and Camilla’s church outing came less than a week after the Duke of Sussex, 38, dropped several royal bombshells in his debut book, Spare, which was released on January 10.
Among the revelations was Harry’s recollection of when he and Prince William asked their father not to marry Camilla — the king ignored their wishes and said “I do” in 2005.
“She was the villain. She was the third person in their marriage. She needed to rehabilitate her image,” the Invictus Games founder explained to Anderson Cooper during his 60 Minutes interview, which aired on CBS on January 8.
“We didn’t think [getting married] was necessary. We thought that it was gonna cause more harm than good and that if he was now with his person, that — surely that’s enough,” Harry recalled. “Why go that far when you don’t necessarily need to? We wanted him to be happy. And we saw how happy he was with her. So, at the time, it was, ‘OK.’”
In Spare, the BetterUp CIO wrote: “I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she’d be less dangerous if she was happy.” Cooper, 55, asked how exactly the future queen consort had been “dangerous” at all.
“Because of the need for her to rehabilitate her image,” Harry said. “That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press. And there was open willingness on both sides to trade of information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her, on the way to being Queen Consort, there was gonna be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”
Harry detailed how he and William believed a member of Charles’ communications team launched a tabloid campaign that made the couple look good “at the expense of bad press” for both princes.
The monarch isn’t pleased with Harry’s candor, especially when it comes to how his son portrayed his second wife.
“Charles is distraught,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “He’s angry and outraged that Harry’s aired so many embarrassing and damaging assertions, and it’s put him in a terrible position with [Queen Consort] Camilla of course now that she’s been dragged into the equation. That’s really crossed the line in more ways than one, but there are so many egregious comments and revelations from Harry that his father doesn’t know where to start.”
Still, the king hopes to eventually have a good relationship with his youngest child again. “He has hope that in time the dust will settle and Harry will soften his heart toward his family, at least he hopes so. But he’s not going to push or apologize,” the insider said.
