Queen Camilla has spoken publicly for the first time about being indecently assaulted on a train as a teenager, saying she hopes she can use her profile as a royal to shine a light on the issue of violence against women.
She has long been a prominent supporter of organisations that help the victims of domestic and sexual abuse. She recalled her own experience during a moving meeting with the family of three women murdered in a case of domestic violence.
Camilla, 78, told John Hunt and his daughter Amy about the incident on a train in the 1960s, when she was 16 or 17, explaining, “I was reading my book and you know, this boy, man, attacked me and
I did fight back. “I remember getting off the train and my mother looking at me, and saying, ‘Why is your hair standing on end and why is the button missing from your coat?’ I was so furious about it and it’s sort of lurked for many years.”
Breaking her silence
The incident was first mentioned in the book Power and the Palace by Valentine Low last year. He reported that she hit the assailant with her shoe. According to the book, She pointed him out to the railway staff when she arrived at Paddington Station in London, and they arrested him.
Camilla told John and Amy — whose wife and mother, Carol Hunt, and daughters and sisters, Hannah and Louise, were killed by Louise’s ex-boyfriend — that she stayed silent about the assault for years. Until she heard other women recount their own stories.
Breaking a long-held taboo
She decided to speak up because domestic violence has been a “taboo subject” for so long that most people don’t realise how bad the situation is.
“I thought, ‘Well, if I’ve got a tiny soapbox to stand on, I’d like to stand on it.’ There’s not a lot I can do except talk to people and get people together.”
The interview that revealed it
The revelation came in an interview Camilla did with racing commentator John and Amy for the BBC about combating sexual and domestic violence.
Amy told the Queen, “Thank you for sharing that, Your Majesty. It takes a lot to share these things because every woman has a story.”
Stopping abuse before it starts
Camilla also spoke about her work with victims of domestic abuse, which also features in the 2024 documentary Her Majesty the Queen: Behind Closed Doors, and said the focus had to be on ensuring young men who’ve been brought up to believe violence against women is “the natural thing to do” don’t become abusive partners as adults.
Camilla added, “If you can get them early enough and teach them respect for women, I think that’s so important to get into schools. And the more I look at it, it is the most important thing we can do now.”
