Loose Women panellist Denise Welch has called Queen Camilla “Charles’s side piece” as she admits she lacks “enthusiasm” for the forthcoming coronation.
King Charles III and Camilla will be crowned at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May, followed by a special concert at Windsor Castle on 7 May.
During Monday’s (10 April) instalment of the ITV talk show, hosts Brenda Edwards, Linda Robson, Jane Moore and Welch shared their thoughts on the forthcoming event.
Welch, 64, admitted that “the monarchy isn’t the same” since the late Queen Elizabeth II died in September.
“I feel like [for] a lot of people, the monarchy isn’t the same since the Queen died,” Welch said.
“I’m trying to get some enthusiasm for the coronation and I haven’t got any.”
Welch added that she was not a “fan” of Queen Camilla, Charles’s second wife.
Welch continued: “I’m not particularly a Camilla fan, the fact is I just think she was there from the beginning of his marriage to Diana and I think it’s disrespectful to Prince Harry and… and I can’t get over that she was the side piece.”
American journalist and historian Sally Bedell Smith’s biography of Charles, Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes, states that his affair with his ex-girlfriend Camilla began in 1986, while he was married to Princess Diana.
Charles and Diana divorced in 1996 and he married Camilla in 2005.
Welch’s comments come as new plans for the coronation have been unveiled.
The procession route will be noticeably different from the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation day in 1953.
In comparison to his mother, King Charles and Queen Camilla’s procession is set to stretch just 1.3 miles, a quarter of the length of Elizabeth’s. This is part of King Charles’s effort to “slim down” the royal event.
It has also been confirmed that Queen Camilla will use an ivory sceptre during the ceremony, despite reports suggesting it might be avoided.
Ahead of the ceremony, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have received an invitation to attend celebrations from the monarch. However, whether they will accept is still to be confirmed, as relations between the Sussexes and senior members of the royal family are believed to be fraught following the release of Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare.
