Over the weekend, the “King Charles and Queen Camilla are a love story for the ages” narrative was being shoved down the British people’s throats. The Telegraph even had a beyond-suspicious piece called “Charles and Camilla’s is the greatest love story of all time,” which served as a complete rewrite on their actual history. Interestingly enough, the Mail published a first-person essay/column by Patrick Jephson, who was Princess Diana’s longtime private secretary and in charge of her office for most of post-Charles years. Jephson is neither royalist nor pure Diana-loyalist – he respected Diana but he saw her flaws as much as anyone, and he also saw the real Charles and Camilla. Which is why his words carry some weight. Here’s the most significant portion of Jephson’s piece:

Sadly, Prince Charles found it difficult to take pleasure from public admiration, even affection, for his then wife [Diana]. It should have been a source of satisfaction that her efforts added a new relevance and new supporters to the Royal Family, but instead an extraordinary resentment took control. Scraping the barrel, some of his advisers briefed media allies against her, even whispering that she was mentally ill. Did Charles countenance such callous tactics against the mother of his children? Even having to ask the question made me realise that here was yet another version of the Prince, one I found much less easy to admire.

Distracted by the cold-blooded deception of Martin Bashir, Diana handed an easy victory to her critics with her disastrous Panorama gambit. Fatally estranged from the royal support system, she now took a path that led only to a mirage of freedom and ultimate tragedy.

Meanwhile, the Prince steadily advanced on the objective that’s clearly his life’s great work: the transformation of Camilla Parker Bowles from guilty secret into the anointed Queen of the United Kingdom. Today that work will be complete. That news may fill you with joy. This may indeed be the happy ending that justifies years of marital strife and decades of collateral damage. Perhaps, in the famous words of the King’s daughter-in-law Meghan Markle, ‘Love wins’. Yet for many loyal monarchists, all this rejoicing — with its tinge of triumphalism — may still feel slightly unsettling. A romance that conquers everything in its path is bound to stir some misgivings.

My own doubts have an obvious explanation. I served the King’s first wife for eight years. Though we parted on unhappy terms (thanks to Martin Bashir’s lies), she earned my loyalty many times over. She has it still. Others may regret, as I do, that our dutiful respect for the highest office in the land is now tainted by the lingering effects of so many half-truths, planted to obscure the King’s real intentions towards Mrs Parker Bowles.

An honest account of her extraordinary ascent would acknowledge that Camilla’s actual status in the King’s past and in the country’s future was cloaked behind a long succession of creative palace statements. These were intended to benefit from benign public loyalty and reliably patchy public memory. For good measure, journalists are still being fed a well-worn palace sales pitch about Camilla the wholesome dog-walking countrywoman. The contrast with mercurial Diana is implicit but clear.

Second chances have been kind to Charles and Camilla. Yet even as the champagne corks pop, clear-headed courtiers should have a nagging concern: pomp and spin reliably make palace inhabitants feel secure and loved, but how far that warm glow extends beyond the red carpet nobody can be quite sure. There may be lean years ahead when this reign needs every drop of goodwill it can get.

Camilla’s greatest value may yet be to demonstrate to other members of the Royal Family that it isn’t necessary to do anything very much in order to get by. Attend regularly to a small but carefully curated portfolio of good causes and don’t forget to smile and wave.

The Coronation’s magical blend of low festival and high religious solemnity will surely turn the toughest sceptic into a monarchist for the day. Even so, the palace has been sent a respectful reminder of the reservations felt by many of the King’s subjects. Recently, The Mail’s comprehensive poll of attitudes to royalty revealed that Diana scored ahead of Charles as the royal figure making the more positive contribution to the country. It seems the new reign — like Diana’s marriage — will still be a bit crowded. More worrying to Coronation strategists was the finding that naming Camilla ‘Queen’ is approved by only 14 per cent.

[From The Daily Mail]

My least favorite part is where he blames Diana for doing the Panorama interview and suggesting that it led to her death. When all she was trying to do was tell her side of the story so her husband and his mistress would stop lying about her and publicly gaslighting her, as Jephson also notes. But really, Jephson is one of the few to point out the simple and obvious truth, which is that Charles and Camilla have lied and cheated for decades to get here, and that after all of those lies, all of that money spent rigging polls and buying Camilla the finest horse tarps, Diana is the one everyone remembers, Diana is the person most people will be thinking of on Charles’s fancy hat day. Diana is the specter at the feast and it’s what they all deserve.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.