Prince William’s recent move to eliminate Queen Camilla’s sister Annabel Elliot from the royal payroll should have been the first sign that things were amiss at the palace.
While the Prince of Wales has every right to manage the Duchy of Cornwall as he sees fit, it’s pretty clear that having his Camilla’s sister making money as an interior designer for the royals was a nepotism play for almost two decades — King Charles III did it as a favor to his wife.
Now that Prince William is in charge, things will be handled differently — and according to The Daily Beast, he wasn’t a fan of the favoritism which began shortly after Charles married Camilla in 2005. This notable decision by William might be his way of keeping “the entire Parker Bowles family at arm’s length.” He is reportedly not close with his stepbrother Tom nor his stepsister Laura, and as one insider noted, “It is best to avoid mentioning Tom around William.” Tom will be cashing in on his nepo-baby status later this year with his cookbook, Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III. There’s a feeling that Camilla’s family is profiting from their royal-adjacent life.
Camilla, Queen Consort (L) looks on with guest, Annabel Elliot in the Royal Box during the Women’s Singles Quarter Final match between Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan during day ten of The Championships Wimbledon 2023 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 12, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The Camilla issue might be the only thing William and Prince Harry agree upon. The Duke of Sussex detailed his relationship with his stepmother in his 2023 memoir, Spare. He described Camilla as “dangerous” in his book, and explained to Anderson Cooper in a 60 Minutes interview what he meant by that. “Because of the need for her to rehabilitate her image,” he said. “That made her dangerous because of the connections that she was forging within the British press and there was an open willingness on both sides to trade information. And with a family built on hierarchy, and with her on the way to being Queen Consort, there was going to be people or bodies left in the street because of that.”
Queen Camilla might be the closest family member to the Royal Rota, so Harry and William both have a reason to side-eye their stepmother when it comes to the British tabloids. She even cozied up to Meghan Markle’s biggest U.K. media enemies, Jeremy Clarkson and Piers Morgan, by inviting them to her annual Christmas luncheon. For the two feuding siblings, there will always be the agreement that she was a huge part of the demise of Charles’ marriage to their mother, Princess Diana. Camilla will always have the “other woman” label in their eyes.
King Charles doesn’t seem to be bothered by his eldest son’s financial move, even if Camilla doesn’t like it. “I think Charles has got bigger fish to fry than worrying about Annabel’s job prospects. The Duchy of Cornwall is William’s now. She is 75 and she is Queen’s Companion [Camilla’s new term for a lady-in-waiting] now, so she is very busy,” a second source told The Daily Beast. “Annabel and Camilla are very close.” The women have to accept William’s budget cuts because he’s not interested in funding the entire Parker Bowles clan on the royal payroll.
