Queen Camilla has spoken publicly for the first time about being sexually assaulted as a teenager and how she fought back against her attacker.
The 78-year-old royal shared her deeply personal story during a special edition of BBC Radio 4 program that aired on Wednesday, December 31. The episode was guest edited by former UK Prime Minister Baroness Theresa May, who has also long campaigned against domestic abuse.
A Story of Anger and Resilience
During the program, Camilla recalled the traumatic incident from her teenage years. “When I was a teenager, I was attacked on a train. I’d sort of forgotten about it. But I remember at the time being so angry,” she said. Checkout the clip here on BBC.
“(It was) somebody I didn’t know. I was reading my book, and this boy, man, attacked me, and I did fight back.”
“I remember getting off the train and my mother looking at me and saying, ‘Why is your hair standing on end, and why is a button missing from your coat?’ “
“I had been attacked but I remember anger, and I was so furious about it, and it sort of lurked for many years,” she added.
Camilla explained how that experience has influenced her advocacy work. “When the subject about domestic abuse came up, and suddenly you hear a story like John and Amy’s, it’s something that I feel very strongly about.”
A Conversation with Survivors
Queen Camilla made these revelations during a discussion with BBC racing commentator John Hunt and his surviving daughter, Amy. The Queen invited them to Clarence House as part of the UN International 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to record the episode.
John Hunt’s wife Carol, 61, and daughters Hannah, 28, and Louise, 25, were tragically killed in a crossbow and knife attack in England in July 2024. Kyle Clifford, 26, Louise Hunt’s ex-boyfriend, was sentenced to life in prison in March of this year following the attack.
Queen Camilla who has long made supporting victims of rape, domestic violence and sexual abuse a key priority of her public work wanted to create a space for honest conversation about gender-based violence.
More Details Previously Revealed
While this marks the first time Camilla has publicly discussed her assault, the story was first shared in Valentine Low’s book Power and the Palace, which was released in September of this year.
The book recounted early encounters between Camilla and then-London mayor Boris Johnson in 2008, per an excerpt previously published by The Times.
According to Guto Harri, the communications director who worked with Johnson, 61, when he was the newly elected mayor of London at the time, Camilla invited the politician to Clarence House for a first meeting.
Harri said that Camilla shared her deeply personal story during their meeting, which was related to Johnson’s plan to open three rape crisis centers in London.
“The serious conversation they had was about her being the victim of an attempted sexual assault when she was a schoolgirl,” Low wrote in the book.
The journalist continued, “She was on a train going to Paddington — she was about 16, 17 — and some guy was moving his hand further and further … ‘At that point Johnson had asked what happened next. She replied: ‘I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.’ Harri said: ‘She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me’, and he was arrested.'”
“The relevance of this conversation was that Johnson at the time wanted to open three rape crisis. There was already one in south London, and he wanted to open ones in east, west and north London,” Low wrote. “Harri said: ‘I think she formally opened two out of three of them. Nobody asked why the interest, why the commitment. But that’s what it went back to.'”
A Long History of Advocacy
Through the years, Camilla has regularly voiced her support for victims of rape, domestic violence and sexual abuse.
It was revealed in March that Her Majesty had reached out to Gisèle Pelicot to commend her for her “extraordinary dignity and courage.”
The Queen was “tremendously affected” by last year’s rape trial in southern France, which ended with Pelicot’s husband, Dominique, being found guilty of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife of 50 years.
“As a long-term supporter of survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, the Queen wrote to Madame Pelicot privately,” a royal aide told Newsweek earlier this year. “It was very much her instigation and determination to write to express support from the highest level.”
By sharing her own story, Queen Camilla continues to use her platform to break the silence around sexual violence and support survivors in their healing journeys.
