Stupidly, I hate-enjoy the Eden Confidential column in the Daily Mail. The column is always full of the exploits of a who’s who of social x-rays, British horse people and royal-adjacents. It’s like a window into another world. So, the column reports that Queen Camilla’s old roommate was included on this year’s honours list. The woman is named Virginia Carington and there’s no absolutely zero mention of what Carington did to merit a special honor from Camilla’s husband. In fact, it looks like Carington might have been given an honor for keeping her mouth shut all of these years about what Camilla is really like.

The Queen Consort asked King Charles to approve an honour for her former flatmate, Virginia Carington — even though the old friend once described Camilla as a ‘total slob’. Camilla Shand was a fun-loving 17-year-old when she and Virginia, daughter of late Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington, rented a two-bedroom flat in Belgravia together.

Virginia’s observation is recalled by author Jessica Jayne in her book The Duchess Of Cornwall: Camilla’s Story And Secrets. ‘On coming home, she would just drop her clothes on the floor and leave them,’ writes Jayne. ‘Camilla’s bedroom always looked like a bomb had hit it.’

In his first New Year’s Honours list, the King approved the award of CVO to Virginia, whose brother Rupert is now Lord Great Chamberlain.

Around 1965, Camilla and Virginia rented a flat on London’s exclusive Edbury Street, following the Queen Consort’s etiquette studies at the Mon Fertile finishing school near Geneva.

Writer Gyles Brandreth also described the scene: ‘Virginia was fairly tidy and organised and Camilla drove her nuts, in the nicest possible way. Virginia once told me: “You know, Camilla has this inability to hang anything up on a hanger. And she has an aversion to cleaning fluids of any description. You should see the state of the bathroom when she’s been in it”.’

[From The Daily Mail]

We’ve actually heard this from other people, and we’ve heard a lot worse. Camilla is messy, Camilla doesn’t pick up after herself, Camilla doesn’t bathe, Camilla stinks, Camilla is an alcoholic wreck. We still don’t know exactly what Carlington did either – why is she getting an honor? For being related to the new Lord Great Chamberlain?

Interestingly, there was also a recent story about Camilla’s private home, Ray Mill, and how she’s keeping it even though she’s now queen and she has tons of other properties at her disposal. One of the reasons why she’s keeping Ray Mill? She can be messy and not pick up after herself.

Friends say the Ray Mill mansion in Lacock, Wiltshire, is Camilla’s “guilty pleasure” and boasts an outdoor swimming pool, stables and a river. She lived there from 1996 – 2003, and despite now having many royal manors and palaces at her disposal friends say it’s where she likes to retreat to the most.

A source told Daily Express: “At Ray Mill, she can sit down with a big G&T, kick off her shoes and watch Coronation Street, which Charles loathes. She also doesn’t have to bother about how the place looks – Charles is so fussy about tidiness, while she leaves her stuff all over the place. She doesn’t need her cushions plumped all the time.”

[From The Sun]

I mean, I’m not the tidiest person either and in general, I think it’s fine that Camilla has her own place where she can be her true slob-self. But one does get a certain image of the physical and psychological chaos Camilla leaves in her wake.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.