Queen Camilla allegedly fought off an attacker with her high heel after being groped on a train as a teenager, according to revelations in royal correspondent Valentine Low’s forthcoming book Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy.
The book recounts how Camilla shared the traumatic story during a private tea at Clarence House in June 2008 with then, London Mayor Boris Johnson, his communications director Guto Harri, and King Charles III.
Harri told Low that Camilla described being around 16 or 17 years old when a man began groping her on a train bound for Paddington.
“I did what my mother taught me to,” Camilla allegedly told Johnson. “I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.”
Harri said the Queen Consort was “self-possessed enough” to immediately leave the train, report the incident to a uniformed official, and ensure the man was arrested.
According to Harri, Johnson was so struck by Camilla’s candor that the conversation influenced his later decision to open three rape crisis centers in London.
An insider told the Daily Mail that Camilla, now 78, has spoken openly about the assault with those close to her, believing that “if her own experience helps other women, that is a positive outcome.”
The source added she has never felt “shame” about the incident but has simply prioritized amplifying other women’s stories over her own.
The excerpt was first published in The Sunday Times.
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