Why Queen Camilla Is a "Stranger to Self-Pity" After Difficult Health Battles and Public Criticism

After what has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging years of her life, Queen Camilla not only faced personal illness, but also the weight of husband King Charles III's cancer diagnosis. Yet, true to form, she's remained a pillar of strength—a woman who, as one palace source puts it, is "not known for wallowing."

Speaking to the Mirror, one Buckingham Palace insider explained that The Queen—who was forced to cancel multiple engagements at the end of 2024 and early 2025 due to a lingering bout of pneumonia— is "a stranger to self-pity."

"It's something she's inherited really I think from her late father and his wartime experiences," the source continued. "They are the ultimate 'never complain' family." Even though she returned to public duties, the 77-year-old Queen grappled with fatigue caused by her illness and had to resign to taking things one day at a time.

It's a feeling Camilla is certainly familiar with after supporting The King through his own health challenges. After King Charles announced his cancer diagnosis in February 2024 and the Princess of Wales revealed her own cancer battle a month later, The Queen stepped up to carry out even more royal duties in addition to being a caregiver.

"It was astonishing how she balanced both of those roles alongside her own private anxieties, in particular during the first period of about a week or 10 days," a royal aide told the outlet. "It was exhausting. It would have been draining for a woman half her age."

However, one "benefit" to King Charles stepping back from duties for a time meant that The Queen was able to showcase to the world "some of the work that she had always been doing with greater interest and clarity." These charitable efforts include her work fighting violence against women and promoting literacy efforts through her various patronages and Queen's Reading Room initiative.

Queen Camilla—who married Prince Charles in 2005 after a longtime affair—is no stranger to holding her head high and riding out tough times. The public took Princess Diana's side when Charles and Camilla's affair was revealed, and her son Tom Parker Bowles revealed the "incredibly dangerous" situations his family found himself in as the paparazzi chased his mother n the mid-1990s.

"She's weathered some pretty stiff criticism over the years but she's very good at not letting it get to her and just cracking on, driven by a sense of duty and purpose," a palace source told the Mirror, adding, "self-pity is not seen as an attractive quality in anyone."

As for tackling an increased workload when most people her age are enjoying retirement, an insider said that it was a life "of hard toil and quite a lot of sacrifice" considering "everything she does is now in the public eye." However, becoming Queen was never something that necessarily interested Camilla.

"She was very willing to undertake the role and responsibilities, but it was never part of the goal of what she wanted from life," a source told the publication. Instead, "being with the man she loved" was her ultimate aim—and "that meant accepting the duties that would come with him."