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While the royal family has put up a united front in public during their feud with Prince Harry, it’s becoming more apparent that relationships behind the scenes at the palace are dicey at best. Not only are King Charles III and Prince William reportedly at odds, but so are Kate Middleton and Queen Camilla.
It seems that the current king and queen don’t agree with the future king and queen — and Camilla apparently wants to stay in power as long as possible, according to Us Weekly. “She loves her responsibilities,” a source told the media outlet. “Her whole life, she has always wanted to be queen, so she doesn’t want to let it go so fast.” Despite Charles’ cancer battle, Camilla doesn’t want to relinquish her role to Kate.
That’s where the women’s “tense relationship” enters the picture. Robert Hardman, author of Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, believes that Camilla will “carry on with a public role but obviously within a different capacity,” once Charles steps down, but a royal insider thinks that William and Kate will “reevaluate” her role. It’s possible that Camilla could be sidelined more than she would want.
There are residual feelings in public about Camilla because she was the person who came between Charles and Princess Diana. It’s hard for the king and queen to shake their home-wrecker image even decades after the affair were revealed. Still, Camilla has her defenders, including royal expert Angela Levin. “Camilla gets on also very, very well with Catherine and helped her to understand the way you needed to be in the palace because it’s very difficult,” she told GB News on Nov. 25.
The truth might reside somewhere in between a feud and a close relationship, but it’s apparent that William and Kate are prepping for the future. The Prince of Wales is ready to modernize the royal family and “do it differently” when he takes the throne. “To give you more [of] an understanding around it, I’m doing it with maybe a smaller ‘r’ in the royal,” he explained to The Times during his South African tour.
Camilla will retain her crown for now, but it looks like William and Kate are inching closer to the throne. Nobody is seeing eye to eye at the palace and the royal family’s foundational cracks are growing even deeper.
Before you go, click here to see the best photos of the royal family at Trooping the Colour over the years.
