She was once described as a ‘fiercely modern feminist’.
Queen Camilla, who turns 78 today, has spent more than three decades championing charities helping women – following some tragic family losses.
As patron of more than 90 charities, the Queen has worked to highlight organisations supporting victims of rape and sexual assault, as well as bone diseases.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told OK! magazine: ‘You don’t look at Camilla who has never had a career and who was always linked in with the horsey, aristocratic crowd and think “Oh, there walks a feminist”.
‘But she absolutely is a feminist. She has stood up, first of all quite quietly, but now very noisily for women’s rights and equality.’
Camilla’s work with survivors of domestic abuse and campaigners was covered in the ITV documentary Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors in November 2024.
In the documentary she said: ‘One of the most difficult things about domestic abuse, to understand, it’s not the bruises and the black eyes, which, unfortunately you see, through violence, this is something that creeps up very slowly and, far too often, it ends up with women being killed.
‘By scratching the surface, you get a terrible shock. It’s a heinous crime.’
Queen Camilla makes a speech as she hosts a reception to mark the relaunch of the Wash Bags project at Buckingham Palace in May 2024
The Queen spent time with the Asian Women’s Resource Centre as it marked 45 years of helping victims of domestic violence, forced marriage and honour-based violence
Camilla with author Kathy Lette and journalist Jennie Bond at a reception to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the National Osteoporosis Society at Clarence House
She added: ‘If we could just get more people discussing it, talking about it, people are so shocked by what they hear that, rather like me, they want to say “oh, hang on a minute” perhaps there’s something we can do to put an end to it.’
Camilla visited nine rape crisis centres in 2009 and began her advocacy work after hearing victims’ accounts.
In 2011 she opened the Oakwood Place Essex Sexual Assault Referral Centre at Brentwood Community Hospital.
She is patron of the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust which provides home security for victims of crime and domestic abuse and of SafeLives, a charity that campaigns against domestic abuse and violence.
In 2013 the then Duchess of Cornwall held a reception at Clarence House bringing together an important group of national stakeholders and key decision-makers.
This was the first time in the UK that such a wide range of organisations had been drawn together specifically to discuss rape and sexual abuse.
At the occasion, she introduced a plan to help the victims: about 750 washbags, created by her Clarence House staff and packed with luxury toiletries, were distributed to victims at the centres.
She partnered with Boots in 2017 to create a line of washbags to be given to sexual assault referral centres around the country.
Camilla is committed to raising awareness of domestic and sexual violence and previously pledged to break the ‘taboo’ around the topic in a 90-minute documentary
Camilla partnered with Boots in 2017 to create a line of washbags to be given to sexual assault referral centres around the country
As of 2024, it had donated more than 50,000 washbags.
Camilla also lent her support to a family campaigning to lower the age of domestic abuse classification to include under-16s.
She also described the scale of violence within the home, coupled with social media, as ‘terrifying’.
The Queen spoke with the parents of Holly Newton, a 15-year-old who was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend in Northumberland in January 2023, at a reception held at her London residence, Clarence House.
Holly’s mother Micala Trussler said that it was ‘really amazing’ to meet the Queen, adding: ‘She was really down to earth and lovely and she was really passionate about our campaign.
‘She is supporting us in our campaign and she’s looking to help young people as well. She said she’s sorry for our loss and we shouldn’t have to be here doing this.’
Her husband Lee Trussler said that the Queen’s support meant that their campaign was ‘getting heard in the highest place in the country’.
He added: ‘We’re hoping other people are going to take notice that the Queen’s paying attention so they can get behind us and get the law changed to protect the kids.’
Since 1994 the Queen has been involved with the Royal Osteoporosis Society after losing her mother and grandmother to the disease. She is pictured in 2023
Camilla during a visit to the Royal Osteoporosis Society reception at the Guildhall, in January 2023
The Queen Consort unveils a plaque during a visit to the Royal Osteoporosis Society reception at the Guildhall
In 2016 at a reception hosted by the Duchess in Clarence House author Kathy Lette praised Camilla as a ‘feminist’ who ‘takes no prisoners’.
Lette said the choice of charities and causes the Queen supported showed she was a feminist, adding: ‘She surrounds herself with strong women, strong female friends. She’s earthy, she’s witty, she’s wise and deliciously self-deprecating.
‘I don’t know that she calls herself a feminist, but her behaviour is certainly of one. I would say she is a feminist, for sure.’
As well as championing charities which support women going through domestic violence or abuse, the Queen has been involved with the Royal Osteoporosis Society since 1994 after losing her mother and grandmother to the disease.
Camilla described her anguish at watching her beloved ‘Mama’, Rosalind Shand, die a ‘crippling, slow and agonising death’ from the fragile-bone disease in 1994, aged 72.
Her maternal grandmother, Sonia Keppel, died of the condition just eight years earlier.
‘Seeing someone you love die slowly, in agony, and knowing nothing about the disease that killed them is heartbreaking,’ she told the Daily Mail in 2011.
Camilla was made patron of the charity in 1997 and ultimately president in 2001.
Mail on Sunday journalist Ruth Sunderland and her mother meet the Queen in the Morning Room at Clarence House
Camilla, president of the Royal Osteoporosis Society, held a royal reception for bone disease campaigners last year
In 2002 she launched a mini book, A Skeleton Guide to a Healthy You, Vitamins and Minerals, which aims to help women protect themselves from the disease.
This led to her receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Southampton in 2016 in recognition of her efforts to raise awareness about osteoporosis.
Camilla held a royal reception for bone disease campaigners last year, which the Mail’s Group Business Editor Ruth Sunderland was invited to attend following her work for the War on Osteoporosis campaign.
The Queen is president of the Women of the World Festival, the globe’s largest women’s festival, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.
The festival champions gender equality, celebrating the achievements of women worldwide and examining the obstacles that stop them from fulfilling their potential.
At an International Women’s Day event in 2017, Lette jokingly described Camilla as like a ‘human Wonderbra’ for women – ‘uplifting and supportive’.
Camilla has proven herself to be a feminist through her support for wide-ranging charities and campaigns helping women and girls.
As she celebrates her birthday, she can reflect on more than 30 years dedicated to her charity work – honouring her late mother and grandmother.
