Queen Camilla's Friends Are Worried She's Not Getting Better

Queen Camilla wears flowers round her neck and carried a transparent umbrella as she braves the rain in Samoa — (Image credit: Aaron Chown - Pool/Getty Images)

Queen Camilla's friends are apparently spending a lot of time worrying about the royal, who has dealt with a number of health issues in recent weeks.

Having returned from a royal tour of Australia and Samoa at the end of October, Queen Camilla had planned to return to her official duties immediately. However, since early November, Camilla has been replaced at a plethora of events on account of being too sick to attend. Now, a new Daily Beast report cites sources close to The Queen, and they're getting worried.

"People forget that Camilla never set out to be Queen," a source told the outlet. "She never signed up for the hamster wheel. She just happened to fall in love with a Prince. She has risen to the demands of the job but she finds it exhausting."

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Another of Camilla's friends spoke on behalf of the group, saying, "We are all extremely concerned that this happened. Thank goodness she seems to have recovered. Camilla just needs to rest and recuperate now over Christmas and I only hope they drive her and The King to church on Christmas Day if it's cold!"

Queen Camilla wears a blue velvet gown with Queen Elizabeth's aquamarine ribbon tiara and matching earrings and a necklace — Queen Camilla attended a Diplomatic Reception on Nov. 19 while recovering from a chest infection.

And that's not all. Camilla's friends appear to be worried about all of the pressures The Queen has faced throughout 2024. Getting diagnosed with pneumonia appears to have been the final straw.

"Prince William said that his year had been 'brutal' and the 'hardest' of his life," a source told the publication. "I would humbly suggest that Camilla has had a brutal year too. To get pneumonia at her age is no small thing. She was run down and vulnerable and she needs to be cared for as well."

Queen Camilla, Princess Anne, and King Charles standing up and toasting the Amir and Sheika of Qatar at a white tie banquet — Queen Camilla toasting the Amir and Sheika of Qatar at a state banquet on Dec. 3.

Another one of Camilla's close friends suggested that the royal tour of Australia and Samoa was perhaps too much for The Queen.

"At 77, to be shipped off to the other side of the world to shake hands with thousands of people when your husband has cancer is, quite frankly, too much to ask," they told the outlet. "Camilla would never complain, and of course she wanted to support her husband, but she never should have been put in that situation. And she got pneumonia as a result."

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Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.