Prince Charles has said for the first time that his wife Camilla "could be" the Queen when he takes the throne. Asked in an interview on US channel NBC whether the Duchess of Cornwall could ever become Queen Consort, he initially stumbled over his answer. He then added: "We'll see won't we? That could be."
Mr and Mrs Loon
Clarence House said that "nothing had changed" since the couple's wedding, and that the Duchess would become Princess Consort as was stated then. BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the issue was the title which Camilla would take when the prince became king, not her role.
According to 1,000 years of history and precedent the wife of a king becomes a queen, as a Queen Consort, which has no constitutional power. But at the time of their marriage five years ago, it was announced that Camilla would assume the Princess Consort title when Charles became King. That came at a time when there were several newspaper polls indicating a lack of public support for Camilla ever being known as Queen Camilla.
Nicholas Witchell said Prince Charles had been caught unawares in the interview and had given a rather stumbling answer, but he could have "stuck to the script" of Clarence House. Instead he gave that answer, which confirmed what people suspected, that he wanted Camilla crowned alongside him as Queen Consort, which was revealing, our correspondent added.
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