Even the monarchy hasn’t been spared from horrifying ordeals. A new book about the royal family reveals that Queen Camilla narrowly escaped a sexual assault as a teenager, bravely fending off her attacker by striking him with the heel of her shoe.
The Queen told this incident to Boris Johnson about the attack while he was still the mayor of London, before he stepped down in 2016. The incident was narrated in the book Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street, written by Valentine Low. The author spoke to Boris's former communications director Guto Harri, who recalled the story told to him. Boris, the now-prime minister mentioned that the conversation with Queen Camilla took place at Clarence House around 2008.
“But the serious conversation they had was about her being the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a schoolgirl," the extracted section from the book said, directly quoting Guto.
“She was on a train going to Paddington – she was about 16, 17 – and some guy was moving his hand further and further …”
“I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel," was Camilla's response, when Boris asked her what she did.
“She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me,’ and he was arrested," Guto added.
The 78-year old queen is married to King Charles, who was of course, married to Princess Diana until they divorced in the mid-nineties.
Queen Camilla supports over 90 charities as Patron or President.
She has long campaigned for health, literacy, along with the elderly, victims of rape and sexual abuse and domestic violence, among others.