Queen Consort Camilla may be married to Prince George, Charlotte and Louis' grandfather, but the royal ‘is not' seen as their 'step-grandmother’ and neither has she ever tried to replace their late grandmother, Princess Diana, in the role, a royal author has claimed.
Merging families can be a difficult task. Whether you're trying your hand at co-parenting or adapting to life as a new blended family, the struggles can sometimes feel impossible. Now imagine doing that with the eyes of the world upon you.
When King Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, the monarch's teenage sons may have been slightly too old to need any form of mothering from their father's new wife, but it's been well documented that Prince William and Prince Harry never fully 'bonded' with their stepmother. And that fact has become blatantly clear now William has started his own family, with Camilla reportedly not being considered his children's step-grandmother but just a 'fun grown-up' they see at family events.
Writing in her book Camilla: From Outcast to Queen Consort, royal author Angela Levin shared, “William has made it clear that Camilla is the wife of his father, but not a step-grandmother to his children."
She added that William believes his kids, Prince George, ten, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, have 'two grandfathers but only one grandmother.'
The Prince's stance likely stems from his own lack of connection with his step-mother. As Angela shares in her book, Camilla was simply a 'friendly grown up' that William and Harry 'saw occasionally at royal gatherings' rather than any type of step-mother figure to them. But this was often purposeful on her part, the author claims, as Camilla wanted to be 'encouraging rather than influential' and never wished to take their mother's place in their lives following her death in 1997.
Similarly, Levin explained that Camilla has never attempted to "take over any responsibility as a step-grandmother to the [Wales] children," before adding that she does so "especially as Catherine's parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, are so close."
But while they are slightly removed from one another in certain aspects of life, Camilla still shares meaningful bonds with George, Charlotte and Louis as they are all part of the Royal Family and bonded together for that fact.
In Levin's book, Amanda MacManus, a friend and private secretary to Camilla who has been working with the royal for almost 25 years, highlighted Camilla's warmth and tried to explain how the relationship works between the Queen Consort and Prince William's children.
"Her Royal Highness is very warm so I imagine it would all be quite good," she said of their relationships. "She has her own children and grandchildren so she wouldn't try and take other children away from anyone else.
"Having them around is more like having a bonus. She loves children and the more the merrier."
In other royal news; King Charles was ‘delighted’ to receive sweet birthday present from grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet for his 75th birthday earlier this week, a body language expert has claimed that Princess Charlotte shares a ‘necessary’ bond with mum Kate Middleton that’s stronger than other mother-daughter relationships, and the final season of Netflix's The Crown has many royal fans wondering why Queen Elizabeth didn't go to Charles and Camilla's wedding.
