Meghan Markle has been urged to take inspiration from Queen Camilla’s dramatic public image transformation as the Duchess of Sussex continues to navigate life outside the royal fold.
Speaking on HELLO!‘s A Right Royal Podcast, author and journalist Catherine Mayer argued that Camilla’s journey from royal outsider to respected senior royal offers an important lesson in resilience and public perception.
“Camilla has the opposite arc to Meghan,” Mayer told hosts Emily Nash and Andrea Caamano.
“She has gone from probably one of the most hated women in the world, where she was seen as the other woman in the Charles and Diana marriage breakdown, to being solidly up there in the popularity ratings.
“She’s now seen as a stalwart of the monarchy as opposed to the biggest threat that it faced.”
Mayer, whose new book Divide & Rule: Royal Women and Their Battles examines the experiences of women who have married into the royal family, said Camilla’s rise in public esteem has been one of the most significant royal image rehabilitations in modern history.
She argued that Camilla, alongside Princess Catherine and Duchess Sophie, represents one of the monarchy’s most successful examples of an “incomer” adapting to royal life.
According to Mayer, Camilla’s growing popularity was not the result of a single moment, but years of quietly supporting King Charles and steadily earning public trust, particularly during recent challenges surrounding the King’s cancer battle.
“A lot of the people I’ve talked to did not want to be named, but I did talk to Paddy Harverson, who was named, who was the secretary of communications throughout the really key period leading up to their marriage, and his whole thing was: ‘Well if people see more of her (Camilla) they’ll like her’,” Mayer said.
“And that is absolutely true, but I think it needed that bedding down into the formal queen consort role for that to work, and it also needed the warmth from other family members to help that to grow.”
The discussion also turned to Meghan’s experiences after joining the royal family and whether perceptions of the Duchess were shaped by cultural misunderstandings.
Mayer said one of the most surprising conclusions she reached while researching her book was that many people failed to appreciate Meghan’s upbringing and cultural background.
As a dual-national citizen herself, Mayer said she has long observed the differences between how Britons and Americans view one another.
“One of the things I’ve realised is that treating America as just one country fails to understand the essential Californianness of Meghan,” she said.
“If you understand that Californianness, you not only understand the more obvious things, like she expects to be able to talk about her emotions and she uses phrases that people here find grating and new-agey and that sort of stuff, but also that who she is, that kind of reaction to her as a biracial woman that was so wide of the mark, is because people don’t realise how extraordinarily diverse California is and its very long colonial history.”
The Duchess of Sussex was initially welcomed with enthusiasm when her relationship with Prince Harry became public in 2016, but her standing in Britain became increasingly polarising following the couple’s departure from royal duties in 2020 and subsequent public criticism of the institution.
While little is known about the current relationship between Camilla and Meghan, contact between the Sussexes and senior members of the royal family has remained limited in recent years.
However, Harry and Meghan are expected to return to the UK next month alongside their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, ahead of events linked to Harry’s Invictus Games in Birmingham.
Reports have also suggested King Charles III has offered the family accommodation during their visit, fuelling speculation the trip could provide another opportunity for private family reconciliation behind palace walls.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.skynews.com.au ’
