Queen Camilla has had a difficult few weeks. After returning from her royal tour of Australia and Samoa with King Charles, The Queen was forced to pull out from several official engagements upon medical advice. Coupled with the death of her beloved rescue dog Beth, Camilla will reportedly be devastated about recent events.
While speaking with The Sun's "Royal Exclusive" show, royal photographer Arthur Edwards referenced The Queen's absence from Remembrance Day events at the Royal Albert Hall and the Cenotaph in London. "And for her to miss those—obviously the reason was because she's coughing all the time, she didn't want to embarrass anybody—that would have been tragic," Edwards said. Camilla was reportedly diagnosed with a chest infection, and had been experiencing "lingering" symptoms in the days since.
The Sun also reported that "Camilla would have been left heartbroken by the recent death of her rescue Jack Russell, Beth."
Edwards told the outlet, "I remember once seeing [the dog] on an engagement down in Wiltshire, and the lady that walks them every day came along to see The Queen doing this engagement." He continued, "When she got out of the car and saw the dogs, she went over and played with the dogs, and it made a better picture than the rest of the engagement."
It seems clear that Beth held an important place in Camilla's heart, with the royal photographer saying, "They were special to her and also to The King. I mean, The King absolutely loves animals." He continued, "She would be upset about that."
Despite experiencing a lot of sadness in recent weeks, Edwards said that Queen Camilla remains focused on her role within the Royal Family.
"Her main role is obviously to support The King, and she will be getting on with it now," Edwards suggested to the outlet. As well as returning to work after recovering from a chest infection, Edwards believes that Camilla will want to adopt another rescue dog.
Discussing Camilla's decision to skip an appearance at the annual Royal Variety Performance, a source told the Daily Mail, "[S]he didn’t want to spoil anyone else's enjoyment with her cough." The source also claimed that Camilla was "on good form," but recovering from persistent symptoms, and still "coughs whenever she starts speaking." As a result, The Queen decided to miss the public, televised event so as not to distract any other people in attendance.
