Queen Camilla has opened up about a shocking event from her teenage years for the first time.
In a recent episode of BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme Today, the queen consort revealed she was attacked as a teenager.
She said she’d been reading her book aboard a passenger train.
Watch the video above.
“This boy – man – attacked me, and I did fight back,” she recalled of the event.
“I remember I got off the train and my mother was looking at me, and saying, you know, why is your hair standing on end? Why is there a button missing from your coat?”
The Queen went on to say that the memory of the incident had “angered” her during the years that followed.
“I was so furious about it, and it sort of lurked for many years.”
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She revealed that the subject of assault and abuse is one she feels very strongly about, having heard stories from other victims present in the panel-style interview.
The Queen discussed the attack in conversation with John Hunt, whose wife and two daughters, Louise and Hannah, were killed in a domestic violence incident perpetrated by Louise’s ex-partner.
During the discussion, the Queen expressed that she’d found the courage to speak up through Hunt, who had been outspoken about the devastating loss of his family.
She praised the courage of the BBC Racing commentator and his surviving daughter Amy, who was also present.
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The conversation was part of wider commentary on combating sexual and domestic violence, and the power of opening up about grief and trauma.
Details of the indecent assault first came to light in Power and the Palace, a book released last year by former royal editor of the Times newspaper, Valentine Low.
According to the book, the Queen had been around 16 or 17 years old when the incident occurred on a train to Paddington Station.
It detailed the moment the man touched the young Camilla Shand, before she reacted by hitting him with the heal of her shoe.
Power and the Palace alleged the now-Queen reported the incident to station staff at the time, resulting in the man’s arrest.
King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort’s life in photos
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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