As Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, prepares to turn 75 on July 17, she and Prince Charles are more and more in the public eye.
After all, the bittersweet day will come when they have to take on the Queen's current duties. Camilla will be the queen consort, and although the public has had a rocky relationship with her over the years, there seems to be a renewed interest in what the royal is really like.
She recently guest-edited an issue of Country Life magazine and starred on its cover, and an ITV documentary has been released in the U.K. about what that process looked like.
As interest in the duchess mounts, body language expert Darren Stanton has taken a look at Camilla's evolution as a royal, both as her own woman and as wife to a future king.
"On walkabouts, Charles very often looks for Camilla if he can’t see her straight away as he wants her to be by his side because of the great deal of confidence she gives him," Stanton tells Marie Claire on behalf of Betfair Bingo.
"The dynamic between the Queen and Prince Philip has kind of been transferred onto Charles and Camilla and I think she will make a great queen consort and will serve him well as Prince Phillip served the Queen.
"The two seem to have incredible rapport with each other and always appear to be laughing. The most faked emotion is smiling or laughter but with Charles and Camilla you can tell they are sometimes like two naughty school children having fun and enjoying life and it’s clear that Charles loves her very much."
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For Stanton, Camilla hasn't always had it easy since joining the Royal Family—since Charles had admitted to carrying on a relationship with her while he was married to the widely beloved late Princess Diana.
"It has been a long road in the relationship between Camilla and Charles, so naturally when people think about the Duchess of Cornwall they will think about her relationship first and foremost," Stanton continues.
"Widely understood to be the woman who Charles truly loved and wanted, a sufficient amount of time had to have passed in the minds of the public before it was disclosed, because Princess Diana was so dearly loved.
"Nevertheless, Camilla is a strong and smart woman who has navigated the complex situation to where she finds herself today.
"In the early days of the relationship it was clear from her body language, although a very confident woman, she was still apprehensive and sometimes nervous in terms of how she would be received on the world stage.
"She initially did not attend so many official engagements, first seen at social occasions such as polo matches and smaller events, but not many official royal engagements, as I believe the palace wanted to introduce Camilla Parker-Bowles to people’s minds slowly but surely."
Sounds about right!
Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle and Shape. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.
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