Queen Camilla has spoken for the first time about her harrowing experience of being “attacked on a train” as a teenager.
The royal told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Wednesday that she had “somehow forgotten” about the assault by “someone she didn’t know”, but said she “remembers being very angry” afterwards.
“I was reading a book when this boy attacked me and I fought back,” the 78-year-old recalled.
“I remember getting off the train and my mother looked at me and said, ‘Why is your hair standing on end and why is your coat missing a button?'” she added.
Camilla said she was “very furious about it” and that her feelings had “been dormant for years”.
She was inspired to share the story of BBC commentator John Hunt’s wife Carol and daughters Louise and Hannah, who were murdered by Louise’s ex-partner.
“When you talk about domestic violence and all of a sudden you hear stories like John and Amy’s, it feels really strong,” Camilla said.
King Charles III’s wife had not previously told her story publicly, but in 2008 she spoke to then London Mayor Boris Johnson about the incident.
Guto Hari, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s communications director, told Valentine Lowe, author of Power and Palaces, about the “serious conversations” between Camilla and Johnson.
“(She) was the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a high school girl,” Rowe wrote in a September release.
“She was on the train to Paddington – she was about 16 or 17 – and some guy was moving his hand further and further away,” he added.
When Johnson “asked her what happened next,” she allegedly replied, “I did what my mother taught me. I took off my shoe and hit him in the nut with my heel.”
The “self-conscious” boy “jumped off the train” as soon as he arrived and told a uniformed man about the attack, who had him arrested.
In 2008, Camila and Johnson discussed starting a rape crisis center, and Hari revealed, “No one asked me why I was interested or why I was so passionate about it. But then it went back to normal.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
