Queen Camilla once hit a man with her shoe when he tried to grope her on a train, it has been revealed. The incident occurred when she was a teenager and although she has talked openly about what happened within her social circle, it has now been detailed publicly for the first time.
According to the book Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street, Camilla, 78, once told former prime minister Boris Johnson that when she was about 16 or 17 and travelling to London on the train, a man touched her and moved his hand “further and further”. She then “did what my mother taught me to” – took off her high-heeled shoe and hit the man with it.
Sources close to the Queen say she’s pragmatic about the incident being made public all these years later.
“If reading about her own experience helps other women, then in the circumstances she would consider that a positive outcome,” says one.
She has mentioned it to people she has met through her work supporting charities that help survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, but has never wanted to compare what happened to her
with the heartbreaking stories she has heard from these women.
“It simply happened a very long time ago and she dealt with it. She has always taken the view that other women’s stories are much more important than her own.”
